Good News, Bad News: April 19, 2024
With 199 days left until Election Day we need political coverage that uplifts and defends democracy.
Every week until the election, we’ll compare our pro-democracy election coverage guidelines with ongoing election coverage to highlight which newsrooms are standing up for democracy and which are sleepwalking us towards a dictatorship. We hope this inspires you to make more informed choices about where you get your news and strengthens your resolve to join us in advocating for the pro-democracy media Americans need. And now…
THE GOOD NEWS
Stephanopoulos Models Pro-Democracy Interview Technique for Rest of Media
Our guideline to “hold politicians to account for their positions, statements, and behavior, as well as those of their party’s leader” becomes ever more important the closer we come to a presidential election in which one candidate is promising to rule as a dictator. During last Sunday’s edition of ABC News This Week, George Stephanopoulos showed his corporate media colleagues how to stand up for democracy when he held New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu to account for his past statements on Trump.
An excerpt:
STEPHANOPOULOS: So -- but wait a second right there. Your words were very, very clear on January 11th, 2021. You said that President Trump’s rhetoric and actions contributed to the insurrection. No other president in American history --
SUNUNU: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- has contributed to an insurrection. So, please explain, given the fact that you believe he contributed to an insurrection, how you can say we should have him back in the Oval Office?
Sununu responded with a word salad. To his credit, Stephanopoulos persisted in getting Sununu on the record. The interview ended like this:
STEPHANOPOULOS: So just to sum up, you would support him for president even if he is convicted in classified documents. You would support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You would support him for president even though you believe he's lying about the last election. You would support him for president even if he's convicted in the Manhattan case. I just want to say, the answer to that is yes, correct?
SUNUNU: Yeah.
It’s worth reading the transcript. And you can see clips of the exchange here.
Stephanopoulos could have gone even further. Donald Trump coordinated a months-long coup attempt. While we wait for corporate media to gather the courage to habitually use the most accurate language possible, Stephanopoulos’ putting Sununu on record supporting the only president in history to violently reject the will of the people is a win for pro-democracy media. Let’s hope his colleagues adopt this approach.
Honorable Mentions (other pro-democracy coverage of note this week):
NBC News exposes candidate Kari Lake suggesting supporters 'strap on a Glock' to be ready for 2024 - Kudos to Alex Tabet for informing the public about Lake’s heinous rhetoric. Last year, did you see it reported anywhere when presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said he’d “start slitting throats” of federal employees on day one of his administration? If you didn’t, it could be one more indicator Americans are not getting nearly enough pro-democracy coverage. More from Mark Jacob here.
Applicable MAD Guideline: Expose candidates who foment political violence.
Scripps News launches Disinformation Desk to help viewers separate fact from fiction - Our guidelines have a whole section asking news media to “Protect Americans From Disinformation.” Scripps Disinformation Desk member Steve Turnham says: “In this election year, political disinformation will be a primary target, but we will also cover economic and social life, national security and international affairs…And we’ll have a sharp focus on how generative AI is pouring gas on the fire.” Fact checking efforts can be fraught, but more outlets paying attention to disinformation is ultimately a good thing.
THE BAD NEWS
Spectacle over Substance - National Newsrooms Hunger for Debates while Starving Americans of Context
In what many reports are calling an unusual move, last week a dozen national news organizations issued an open letter calling for Trump and Biden to commit to taking part in televised debates, already scheduled by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Referring to the debates’ 50-year legacy, the letter states: “In each of those elections, tens of millions have tuned in to watch the candidates debating side-by-side, in a competition of ideas for the votes of American citizens.”
It is always ideal in a democracy to have candidates for office debate over solutions to the problems facing our nation. However, the most unusual thing about this letter isn’t its existence, but rather its complete detachment from the reality of Donald Trump.
Just as NBC News showed with their courtship of Ronna McDaniel, the news organizations behind this letter seem blind to the unique situation of a candidate who repeatedly lies. Without laying out a plan for how to deal with this, which is not in the letter, they recklessly risk exposing their audiences to more unchecked lying. In 2020, televised debates were nothing more than a platform for Trump to lie with the networks’ tacit endorsement.
Susan Bordson got it right when she said, “All recent TV debates were spectacles that haven't served a more informed electorate — and all programming execs know this.”
A better alternative? Tape interviews with both candidates, centering on policies and track records, and provide fact checks for audiences when airing.
Many of our pro-democracy election coverage guidelines apply to this story, but none more so than: “Prioritize substantive coverage of the issues that matter to voters' lives.”
Dishonorable Mentions (other election coverage failures this week):
The New York Times treats its own poll as newsworthy, normalizes candidate Trump - I searched this NYT piece entitled “Four Years Out, Some Voters Look Back at Trump’s Presidency More Positively,” for the words “January” “insurrection” and “coup” and came up empty. A search for “lie” only found it within other words - believe, salient, and rallies. News stories that provide limited, keyhole-sized framing of polls, while completely ignoring Trump’s coup and treating him like a normal candidate fit for office are, bizarrely, a standard practice across corporate media.
Applicable MAD Guideline: Stop making predictions and pushing polls at the expense of issues coverage.
NYT does PR for disinformation agents, pretends Trump isn’t racist - Jamison Foser picks apart the terrible NYT decision to write a story based solely on comments from disinformation agents Elon Musk and Christopher Rufo. The election coverage angle? The subhead to the Times article features a tweet in which NPR CEO Katherine Maher said: “Donald Trump is a racist.” Donald Trump is a racist, and the Times pretending it’s wrong to say true things about a bigoted presidential candidate is a distortion of reality and a disservice to readers.
Applicable MAD Guideline: Don’t set aside moral judgment when covering obvious lies and bigotry.
Extra Credit: Pro-Democracy Quote Of The Week
“The press should have precisely two biases: pro-truth and pro-democracy. When reality is asymmetric, ‘balanced’ reporting is deception.”
Brian Klaas - Why We Need Press Objectivity, Not Balance
Democracy’s Survival Requires That Newsrooms Reset to Focus on What’s at Stake
You can be part of the solution. We’re attaching our pro-democracy guidelines to an open letter for you to sign on to. This letter will be distributed to the leadership of all major news organizations. The guidelines serve as a model of what pro-democracy election coverage can—and should—look like. Signing our letter ensures that your frustrations with media’s failure to stand up for American democracy will be heard loud and clear.
Help others advocate for positive change. Share the letter and guidelines with friends, civic organizations, and everyone who cares about the future of America. Ask them to sign on. Demanding better media is an action we must all take.
Tired of paying for corporate media that doesn’t stand up for democracy? Redirect those funds to quality local journalism. Use our Local Journalism Directory to find an outlet and subscribe.
Today, Joyce Vance presented an eloquent analysis about a “Sandoval Hearing” that will review TFG’s actual history of guilty verdicts in prior court decisions. I encourage everyone to read her article and focus on the long list of charges where he was found guilty. Seeing them in one place is a stunning revelation. Reading this list of guilty verdicts will take away any doubt that he is, in fact, a bad actor.
https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/trump-will-he-or-wont-he?r=1dkp2g&utm_medium=ios