Washington Post
Despite my nearly four decades in journalism, I was unprepared for the moment of no return that came on a July day in 2016, as a blazing sun beat down on the streets of Cleveland. Walking around the grounds of the Republican National Convention, I was looking for a column idea. I was new at this, having started at the Washington Post only a few weeks earlier.
Wandering and observing, I came upon a table of souvenirs, meant to appeal to the convention attendees who had arrived from all corners of the nation to cheer on the Republican Party’s nomination of Donald Trump. I already had seen some gleefully misogynistic anti-Clinton paraphernalia – “Hillary sucks but not like Monica” – but nothing measured up to the horror I felt as I registered the meaning of a T-shirt featuring the image of a noose and these words: “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.”
Over the weeks and months ahead, as I started to write what I hoped were well-reasoned Post columns about Trump’s relationship with the media, I felt an irrational anger coming at me like an unending blast from an industrial-strength hose. Trump hadn’t invented this anger, of course, but he certainly emboldened it – and used it for his own purposes.
Over the weeks and months ahead, as I started to write what I hoped were well-reasoned Post columns about Trump’s relationship with the media, I felt an irrational anger coming at me like an unending blast from an industrial-strength hose. Trump hadn’t invented this anger, of course, but he certainly emboldened it – and used it for his own purposes.
On social media, in phone messages, in emails I received, the sheer hatred from Trump supporters shocked and even frightened me. One, unsigned but from a “lifetime member of the NRA,” asserted that people like me wouldn’t be around much longer. Another, signed “A Real, True Patriot,” read:
“Though I would never read a manure-laden pile of toilet paper like Washington Compost, I heard about your Nazi column about ‘reaching the masses’ with your fake news to convince people that your leftist Nazi lies are truth. You are a well-trained serpent of the left, following communist orders as you were taught. ‘If you say and repeat a lie often enough, it will eventually be seen as truth’ – Lenin … Here’s what you (slithering, fake-news/propaganda- generating slimy slug) should do: Go fornicate yourself with a large, sharp knife, and then eat rat poison until your belly is stuffed.”
I was called the c-word repeatedly. One reader suggested I have my breasts cut off. I tried to let all this nastiness roll off my back and even found it amusing when a Post reader sent me an email calling me a “venomous serpent.""John Schwartz, then a reporter for the New York Times who had become a friend, suggested I treat it as a badge of honor and write a book titled “Memories of a Venomous Serpent.”
Now, six years later, we journalists know a lot more about covering Trump and his supporters. We’ve come a long way, but certainly made plenty of mistakes. Too many times, we acted as his stenographers or megaphones.
“Though I would never read a manure-laden pile of toilet paper like Washington Compost, I heard about your Nazi column about ‘reaching the masses’ with your fake news to convince people that your leftist Nazi lies are truth. You are a well-trained serpent of the left, following communist orders as you were taught. ‘If you say and repeat a lie often enough, it will eventually be seen as truth’ – Lenin … Here’s what you (slithering, fake-news/propaganda- generating slimy slug) should do: Go fornicate yourself with a large, sharp knife, and then eat rat poison until your belly is stuffed.”
I was called the c-word repeatedly. One reader suggested I have my breasts cut off. I tried to let all this nastiness roll off my back and even found it amusing when a Post reader sent me an email calling me a “venomous serpent.""John Schwartz, then a reporter for the New York Times who had become a friend, suggested I treat it as a badge of honor and write a book titled “Memories of a Venomous Serpent.”
Now, six years later, we journalists know a lot more about covering Trump and his supporters. We’ve come a long way, but certainly made plenty of mistakes. Too many times, we acted as his stenographers or megaphones.
Too often, we failed to refer to his many falsehoods as lies. It took too long to stop believing that, whenever he calmed down for a moment, he was becoming “presidential.” And it took too long to moderate our instinct to give equal weight to both sides, even when one side was using misinformation for political gain.
It’s been an education for all of us – a gradual realization that the instincts and conventions of traditional journalism weren’t good enough for this moment in our country’s history. As Trump prepares to run again in 2024, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the lessons we’ve learned – and committing to the principle that, when covering politicians who are essentially running against democracy, old-style journalism will no longer suffice.
It’s been an education for all of us – a gradual realization that the instincts and conventions of traditional journalism weren’t good enough for this moment in our country’s history. As Trump prepares to run again in 2024, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the lessons we’ve learned – and committing to the principle that, when covering politicians who are essentially running against democracy, old-style journalism will no longer suffice.
To read entire article, click on link:
11 comments:
Don't report opposition research as fact unless you have proof. Keep your personal opinion to yourselves when covering a candidate.
Contrast how Trump was treated versus Hillary Clinton.
Politics is a dirty game.
Trump has the Midas Touch in reverse - Everything he touches turns to shit.
Journalism, too.
ignore his fat ass. That will torture him to death.
- El Caballo
December 17, 2022 at 9:00 AM
racist republicans start shit but don't like the smell pendejos
kick a Republican in the face and see them wake up. Trump is their drug.
Republicans have been brainwashed by a Cheeto!
ha ha ha
Easy pickings. Chumps at play.
they all love garbage
Lock him up, Putin's puppet "Russia are you listening " pathetic.
When is Montoya going to report on the Twitter files that prove that the scum at the FBI were censoring conservatives?
And democrats have been brainwashed by the Democratic party
Not a single person in here shit talking trump can tell you actual facts as to why they voted against him for someone who should be in a nursing home. This county is worse of now than it ever was with trump. Our president just traded a mass murderer for a WNBA player...left the borders open, tried to influence saudi petrol prices for a better midterm turnout and is still yet to come to the RGV. When will these local boomers realize the democrats haven't given a fuck about us for decades.
The worst thing that happened to our democracy was electing Trump as president. He inherited a robust economy but left it in shambles due to his inability to effectively lead our nation. Countless lies and conspiracy theories that his followers actually believed him. Although President Biden is not perfect, he has lead our nation in the right path. Don't ever want Trump back, PERIOD
Post a Comment