Revisiting the Media Coverage of Trump’s Election
After Donald Trump won the presidential election, the press was stunned, bewildered, searching for answers. Because all their polls and forecasts had failed, and failed badly. Among the culprits responsible for Trumps rise to power they found themselves, and their self-imposed judgement was harsh. They blamed themselves for living in a left liberal bubble, for focusing too much on urban centres on the east and west coast and ignoring the perils of “Flyover Country”. For forgetting the very real concerns of those for whom globalisation did not fulfil its promise of wealth, and who were the backbone of Trump supporters. The media, first and foremost the New York Times, vowed to learn its lesson. It wanted to regain its relevance and get back in touch with an estranged public.
So has there been an actual change of paradigms? Did they start addressing national problems in dealing with the lower and middle classes? Well… no. It seems they went straight back to focusing solely on Trump as a person (DER SPIEGEL Nr.3/14.01.2017 — article: Mister Ich, p. 82), as a scandal, as a cheap source of entertainment and horror. This is not surprising, with Trump being a magnet for outrage and attacking the media left and right. But by now the media should have learned not to take the bait. Even worse, the question of why people felt compelled to vote Trump in the first place, and why they would continue to support him, has stopped being asked.
Because a new villain has entered the stage, and, what a surprise, it’s Russia. The suspicion that it meddled with the US election, hacked servers to slander democrats, fed people’s minds with fake news and may even hold power over Trump with compromising material, has dominated recent reporting. There is no question that these are egregious developments that deserve the wide coverage they are given. But unfortunately, these new concerns have also completely overshadowed the subtler examinations from the days after the election. Because although it is infuriating that Russia may have influenced the US election, it is equally shocking that America is in such a weak state that they are an easy target for such manipulation. And this vulnerability is not due to some foreign enemy that is easily attacked. It is very much homemade, and has quite a lot to do with the established system that has led people from “Flyover Country” and the lower classes to stop believing in some unattainable American Dream, and instead be angry at the rich who use their power to exert influence and push for policies that profit this rich minority only.
It is a shame that the focus of reporting went right back to where it was pre-election, and not to the underlying factors within America that led to its shift to the far right. Without the current political and economic system finally being critically assessed by the media, America will continue to be a deeply divided country. And without the concerns of the lower and middle classes finally being bestowed with some well needed attention by the media, large parts of the public will continue to not have a voice, to be marginalised and alienated — and to be vulnerable to manipulation. From demagogues such as Trump, and quite possibly foreign powers like Russia. After the election, the media made a step in the right direction. But then they went right back, preferring to look at the symptoms, not the sickness.
