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Drawing All the Wrong Lessons From Media's Election 2020 Failures - FAIR

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&nbsp;In the wake of the 2020 election, Columbia Journalism Review editor-in-chief Kyle Pope () lamented “how little we seem to have learned” since media underestimate Donald Trump’s chances of success in 2016. Pope noted that polls were again “overhyped and under-scrutinized,” and argued that while journalists pointed out Trump’s “infinite faults,” they spent too little effort “probing the country.”“Remember the post-2016 pledges to ‘go out into the country’?” Pope asked. “We seem to have forgotten.”CJR‘s Kyle Pope () writes repeatedly that “nearly half the country” voted for Trump, and that “our task now is to report on the fact.” He shows&nbsp; virtually no interest in the more than half the country, largely Black and brown, who voted against him.The piece elaborated:We’ve kept too big of a distance from too much of America, nearly half of which has voted for an administration that downplayed a deadly pandemic; exacerbated the climate crisis; emboldened racism, xenophobia and gender-based violence; and embraced an authoritarian’s handbook on misinformation. In 2016, the press determined that our inability to grasp Trump’s rise ranked as one of our deepest failures. To repeat that mistake—as it appears we have—is somehow worse. Our task now is to report on the fact, ugly as it is, that Trump won more than 67 million votes. That story is only partly about the president’s odious tweets and lies. Voters who support him know about most, if not all, of his flaws—thanks in no small part to some great journalism—and yet pulled the lever for him anyway. Now is our time to focus on the America he has laid bare.It’s an assessment that feels stunningly divorced from the last four years of corporate media coverage, which has subjected us to a never-ending stream of reporters traveling to red states or red districts to seek out Trump supporters to ask them how they feel about Trump (FAIR.org, , ; PressRun, ). The tautology of the Trump-supporters-support-Trump story is nearly always lost on corporate reporters, who somehow never managed to find anything newsworthy in Obama supporters supporting Obama policies (FAIR.org, ).The New York Times‘ main takeaway from interviewing two Trump supporters () was “how much it meant to them to be heard and seen.” This is also true of the underrepresented communities that supported Biden, of course—but it doesn’t get them a profile in the Times.The self-flagellating argument, then as now, seems to be that if reporters would just spend more time of Trump supporters without judgment, they might not underestimate his ability to turn out huge numbers of votes, even in the midst of what a casual observer might judge to be a catastrophic and abominable presidency. At a deeper level, it suggests that understanding and empathy can lead us out of this mess in some way.But if the point is to not misjudge Trump’s popularity, the solution is not to single out Trump supporters in your reporting, but rather to seek out a cross-section of voters—including Biden supporters and the substantial segment of the electorate to Biden’s left.And if the point is to lead us out of this mess, these stories, with their palpable fear of coming across as disrespectful or condescending, only make things worse by creating an uncritical echo chamber for racist and xenophobic perspectives and conspiracy theories that scarcely need echoing, given that the president and the vast right-wing media network spout them without pause.Take a recent NPR recent story, “Ohio Trump Supporters on What They Think Biden’s Presidency Might Bring” (All Things Considered, ). Reporter Andy Chow went to interview residents in an Ohio county where 66% of voters supported Trump. He found three Trump supporters to put on air to say things like, “They’re ready to tax the crap out of us—the Democrats are,” and noted that all “[made] it known that they’re not convinced Biden will end up in the White House on January 20.” One Biden supporter was interviewed. With no effort made to evaluate whether Trump supporters’ convictions or proclamations have any basis in reality, what is the function of such a report besides to reinforce them?Meanwhile, notice that in Pope’s account, reporters have nothing to learn about the Black, brown and immigrant America that voted for Biden, that is under direct attack by Trump’s policies, and that does not have the privilege of having its perspectives promoted incessantly, either by the most powerful person in the country or on television, radio and social media. Nor do they have anything to learn about the working-class white America that does not support Trump, or about the nearly one-third of the voting-eligible population that doesn’t vote at all.The New York Times‘ profile () of an Ohio Nazi said that its subject and his movement “was hoping to make their ideas less than shocking, even normal.” Photos like this illustrating how white supremacists get groceries certainly help with that project.The whole framing of the problem is wrong here. We already know plenty about “the America [Trump] has laid bare.” Journalism’s deepest failure hasn’t been its lack of attention to Trump supporters; it has been its inability to stop normalizing Trump and Trumpism—of which the uncritical Trump supporter stories are part and parcel.Every time a news outlet writes gently and inquisitively about “the Nazi sympathizer next door” (FAIR.org, ), or waters down Trump’s racism and xenophobia (CounterSpin, , ), or paints his unprecedented weaponization of the powers of government against his opponents as a spat between Trump and his cabinet (FAIR.org, ), or deems his press briefings newsworthy, no matter how much misinformation they contain or how much credibility they unjustifiably confer on him (FAIR.org, ), or insists on an “objectivity” that must conjure an equivalence between “both sides” no matter how extreme one side might be (FAIR.org, ), the media reinforce the idea that Trump—and support for Trump—simply fits into the usual narratives of political contestation under democracy.By repeatedly conferring legitimacy on a fundamentally antidemocratic president and his actions, media have paved the way for the we find ourselves in today, and hobbled their ability to protect our democracy.FAIR’s work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. today to be a part of this important mission.You can also support FAIR on Patreon! Click the button below!‘The tautology of the Trump-supporters-support-Trump story is nearly always lost on corporate reporters, who somehow never managed to find anything newsworthy in Obama supporters supporting Obama policies’The author of this appears to operate from the false assumption that media exists to inform, rather than to misinform and misdirect. Has the author read Chomsky and Herman?The reason there were no “Obama supporters support Obama” stories was due to the fact that, in order to write such a story, a reporter-stenographer would be required to identify and highlight points of contradiction between Obama’s obviously insincere promises (e.g. single payer healthcare, accountability for torturers, etc) and his venal actions. To do so would defeat the purpose of “Fact-checked journalism” (sic) circa 2016-20, which is all about diverting the public from class-based economic issues which gave rise to “Occupy” and inter-racial cooperation towards phenotype-based “issues” created to distract.White washing from “the heartland”Taibi has a much better take. The news went from 10000 hours of Trump to 10000 hours of Trump is bad flushing any ability to reach his voters with information down the toilet. The Press should not be allowed to hire anyone with an Ivy league degree and make a point of hiring several non college grads. They are nothing but a bunch of out of touch elitist snobs who blame poor people for not rising up in our faux meritocracy. It doesn’t even occur to them that other people at the head of their field would lie, and the automatically assume rich people deserve what they earn. American Exceptionalism is an obvious truth to them and justifies our endless wars and bloodshed.Wow! Is this FAIR or the NY Times? The problem is being too *uncritical* of Trump and his supporters?? “Normalizing” them?? My jaw literally dropped when I read this.We have so very few decent media sources left. Please, please, *please* don’t take FAIR away too!Julie;Ask the public, in particular the 42% INDEPENDENT voters: most of us whom 100% di$like both, horrible dnc neoliberal corrupted candidate, who was only “anointed” by state primary “voter caging” (see California-3.7 million INDEPENDENT voters with ZERO presidential candidates on ballot, OR horrible gop-libertarian trump, who obviously has not been running the $how…pull aside the green curtain, in both cases. Neither is worthy of voter affiliation, and historical records of both + issue orientation leave voters doubting media $crutiny of either. Of course it’s horrible 2016 redux…The problem with talking to the wrong half of America is that they’re infected with wrong thinking, which is dangerous and highly contagious. Interviewing them is problematic bc they invariably respond in wrongspeak, which is how wrong think is spread. A single brief exposure to wrong speak can spark an epidemic. What’s a right thinking journalist to do? Firstly, avoid talking to wrong thinkers. Anything you say could be interpreted as an invitation to respond. Secondly, try to prevent healthy Americans from hearing the poisonous prose of Wrong thinking individuals. Avoid getting in a shouting match with them it just sows chaos. Cutting their mics is much more effective. Better yet, pretend they don’t exist. The more we ignore the wrong, the righter we’ll be.The media, including FAIR, and many people in general, keep expressing bewilderment at why 72 million people voted for Trump. He really could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and not lose supporters. What frustrates me is why, when answers are available, they aren’t sought, or if found, are ignored. One source that sums it up is “Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump And His Followers” by John W, Dean and Bob Altemeyer. I’m sure there are others.After the electronic media turned news over to their entertainment departments’ control, the effectiveness of which measured by eyeball count, Trump’s campaign received two billion dollars of free airtime. (2015) Remember when a major network left an ongoing Sanders speech for an extended focus on an empty lectern —- waiting on Trump to appear! Was the disproportionate public airtime related to corporate monetary interests? Does the average U.S. voter understand the concept of the “Overton Window?”Thankfully Fair/Counterspin serves as an antidote to much of the above!FAIR’s 4-page, ad-free, newsletter publishes ten times a year bringing you the media analysis and activism that you won’t find anywhere else. Choose a print subscription, a digital PDF edition, or both together.FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. We expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, we believe that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.Fairness &amp; Accuracy In Reporting124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201New York, NY 10001Tel: 212-633-6700We rely on your support to keep running. Please consider donating.This work is licensed under a License.

&nbsp;In the wake of the 2020 election, Columbia Journalism Review editor-in-chief Kyle Pope () lamented “how little we seem to have learned” since media underestimate Donald Trump’s chances of success in 2016. Pope noted that polls were again “overhyped and under-scrutinized,” and argued that while journalists pointed out Trump’s “infinite faults,” they spent too little effort “probing the country.”“Remember the post-2016 pledges to ‘go out into the country’?” Pope asked. “We seem to have forgotten.”CJR‘s Kyle Pope () writes repeatedly that “nearly half the country” voted for Trump, and...

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Julie Hollar

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, holding corporate media accountable for distortions & omissions since 1986. http://mastodon.world/@FAIR

Drawing All the Wrong Lessons From Media's Election 2020 Failures - FAIR

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