Where Do We Go From Here? A Newsroom Protocol
By Corey Fuller and Matt Hornick
It is still very early on in the rise of the alt-right and newsrooms are being put in a position to cover something they have never seen before. They have never dealt with an ideology that is as inherently racist and anti-Semitic as this. This is an opportunity for the news media to correct all of the mistakes they made covering Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Reporters need to understand that it is not like any other political movement they have ever covered, just like Trump was unlike any other candidate they had ever covered only they failed to realize that. Here is everything reporters should understand when covering the attacks on Jews and people of others in the future.
Rule 1: Do Not Normalize This
This is the first major political movement to preach racial inequality in a very long time. Reporters must realize this unlike any type of major uprising in the forty years and that you cannot treat these people as though they were protesting for something legitimate. Understand that what these people believe in is wrong and it is imperative that is made clear to the consumers. Normalizing these beliefs as though they were just like the Black Lives Matter movement or any other major protest of recent times gives them a legitimacy they are in no way deserving of. It must be well noted that these people are spewing Nazi ideologies and do not believe that everyone deserves equal rights. As journalist you are required to maintain order by exposing wrongdoing and attacking it for what is. Providing fair coverage to White Nationalists allows their beliefs to spread more easily than if you did not cover them at all, so if you are going to cover them make sure you reveal the atrocities they believe in.
Rule 2: Tread Lightly Expecting it Get Worse
Trump has been President-Elect for over one month now and the Antisemitism is already becoming much more public. Once he is officially president you should be expecting the sentiments to become even more public. Once the Trump administration officially starts there will be much less in place to stop the alt-right from doing more to preach white supremacy in the United States.
If this happens reporters must be on top of it at all times with as many people as that may require. Along with covering the group itself, White House reporters must be in Trump and his administration’s faces asking how they can allow this to happen. Getting answers from Trump is much more important because he will have to respond to the actions of the alt-right so making sure he gives legitimate answers to what he will do to combat is imperative. If he fails to give sufficient answers then there must be work done into why he is failing to handle this the way he should be. He must be held accountable for sentiment he has created in the United States.
