Media Watchdog Jay Rosen, an NYU professor, has been one of the Eyes on the Fails regarding how our American media is largely, well, failing to properly cover our march into autocracy. His writing is a must-read. Yesterday, he actually saw a glimmer of hope in the form of a CNN appearance by Juicy Trump Book Author Jon Karl, who is also a Well-Respected White House Correspondent with ABC News.
Rosen is a realist and not one to get snookered easily into false hope. So if he sees some good news here, that’s pretty huge. Karl is talking about “conversations” beginning to happen in large newsrooms about how to cover a potential 2024 Trump run. Karl openly calls him an “anti-democratic” candidate, progress for a guy who thought those of us who were alarmed by Trump winning as hysterical.
This is great and all, but I’m still skeptical. “Conversations” are not actual actions and the word “conversations” implies there very well could be push-back against covering Trump any differently than they did from 2015-2020. This might not even happen, this hoped for change in approach.
Also, as Rosen ends his Twitter thread with, there are a lot of concerns that these same media outlets/figures will not apply the same approach to the Republican Party. Because the Republican Party is also interested in wrecking democracy, and covering Trump as some sort of fringe outlier would not be much of an improvement.
As a friend pointed out, the source should be considered here. Karl sat on news that Trump was all for hanging his vice president and didn’t report it so he could include it in his book. Those ethics are not great.
In any event, let’s hope Karl is right and this shift in focus actually happens. But I’m not holding my breath.