Good News, Bad News: May 3, 2024
With 185 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
TIME Puts Trump on Record Saying Terrifying Things
In his piece entitled, “How Far Trump Would Go,” Time reporter Eric Cortellessa wrote this week that he “wanted to know what Trump would do if he wins a second term, to hear his vision for the nation, in his own words.” This might at first blush appear to be a fool’s errand. After all, Trump’s “own words” are almost completely unreliable.
However, there is by now so robust a record of Trump following through on his most anti-democratic campaign rhetoric that Cortellessa’s effort is less folly than it is an absolutely essential public service. For voters in a democracy, tasked with making an existential choice between an aspiring fascist and a conventional candidate, it is imperative that journalists prominently hold politicians to account for their positions, statements, and behavior. This is especially true when we know that many Americans are completely unaware of Trump’s most dangerous rhetoric.
When it comes to mainstream press under-informing the public of threats to democracy, I often think back to September 2020, when the New York Times ran the headline, “Trump Won’t Commit to ‘Peaceful’ Post-Election Transfer of Power.” Obvious front-page news, right? Not to the execs at the NYT, who buried the most important news of the day on page A15. Habitual failures like this by legacy media, not prominently reporting the most salient threats to democracy, are what make this week’s Time interview so valuable.
In his reporting, Cortellessa exposed Trump’s plans to utilize the U.S. military in establishing detention camps for over 11 million humans. Trump said he’d allow states to monitor pregnancies, grant pardons to January 6th insurrectionists, send the DOJ after his political enemies, and deploy the National Guard to cities deemed to be crime-ridden.
Cortellessa was prepared and thorough. He consulted experts on the implications of Trump’s pronouncements and past policies and often provided context to readers based on careful research.
Here are three examples:
“When I point out that independent analysts estimate Trump’s first term tariffs on thousands of products, including steel and aluminum, solar panels, and washing machines, may have cost the U.S. $316 billion and more than 300,000 jobs, by one account, he dismisses these experts out of hand.”
“When I ask what he meant when he baselessly claimed on Truth Social that a stolen election ‘allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution,’ Trump responded by denying he had said it.”
“Trump’s allies don’t plan to be passive on abortion if he returns to power. The Heritage Foundation has called for enforcement of a 19th century statute that would outlaw the mailing of abortion pills. The Republican Study Committee (RSC), which includes more than 80% of the House GOP conference, included in its 2025 budget proposal the Life at Conception Act, which says the right to life extends to ‘the moment of fertilization.’”
Kudos to Cortellessa and his fellow reporters for making the threats Trump poses to democracy more clear.
Stephanopoulos Uses Large Platform to Issue Necessary Warning
In the months before and after the January 6th insurrection, George Stephanopoulos’ Sunday Show competitor Chuck Todd was inviting participants in the Big Lie onto his program, allowing them to further lie to the American people. In platforming them and thanking them for their time, Todd was basically telling his audience that these people are legitimate and the actions of these liars are normal.
This is why it is so refreshing to have someone on the Sunday Show circuit finally speaking plainly and pushing back against the daily media normalization of anti-democratic behavior we’ve witnessed for three and a half long years. It’s worth printing in full what Stephanopoulos said to open his show this past Sunday (emphasis mine):
No American president had ever faced a criminal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election, or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime. No American president has faced hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for business fraud, defamation, and sexual abuse.
Until now, no American presidential race had been more defined by what’s happening in courtrooms than by what’s happening on the campaign trail. The scale of the abnormality is so staggering, that it can actually become numbing. It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But, that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenants of democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.
One surefire way newsrooms can pass this crucial test is by adhering to our pro-democracy election coverage guidelines.
Honorable Mentions (other pro-democracy coverage of note this week):
Baltimore Beat publishes Youth Voter Guide, uplifts ‘youth voices’ - It’s a standard refrain in American electoral politics that young people don’t vote. Maybe part of the reason why is because our newsrooms so often ignore them. Baltimore Beat is upending that paradigm by devoting its 38th issue to young voters, seeking their input by asking things like: “What questions do you want candidates to answer?”
Applicable MAD Guideline: Celebrate and uplift election workers, voters, and the election process.
U.S. President joins MAD in asking journalists to stand up for democracy - It’s quite something to see the person in the most powerful position on the planet speak to your cause. All we at MAD want is for voters to have access to truthful, transparent, contextualized information about the issues that impact their lives and freedoms, in the face of clickbait and sensationalism from a mainstream press seemingly determined to under-inform. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last weekend, Joe Biden echoed our message, saying: “I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides. I’m asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment. Move past the horse-race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have sensationalized our politics. And focus on what’s actually at stake. I think, in your hearts, you know what’s at stake.”
Applicable MAD Guidelines: Prioritize substantive coverage of the issues that matter to voter’s lives. AND Inform voters of the freedoms they will lose if the MAGA movement wins.
THE BAD NEWS
Democracy Dies In Obscene Washington Post Coverage
If American democracy dies, historians will point to coverage like this week’s WaPo quiz as evidence of its downfall.
This is probably the most disgusting normalization of a fascist (who, by the way, just doubled down on a Muslim travel ban if elected) that I have ever seen U.S. media produce (in my lifetime, anyway).
Previous top contenders were this from the New York Times in 2021, the same year Trump attempted his coup:
And this from Bri Keilar, John Berman, and Gabby Orr, only three months after January 6th:
It is true that mainstream media has produced reporting warning of the threat Trump poses. But has that coverage occurred with the level of frequency and prominence needed to make the public aware of a potential authoritarian takeover of our government? Regrettably, there is a much larger body of reporting that daily normalizes Trump via horse race poll coverage, false equivalency, and straight up turning the VP choice of the only president to ever attempt a coup into “the greatest parlor game in Washington.”
Do Aaron Blake and the other authors of this cheeky “quiz” realize they are writing about a racist rapist who tried to overthrow the government? Do they not care? Because some Americans like him, does that mean they can abandon any sense of their own morality? Or do they not have morals? It’s a serious question.
MAD is begging our major news outlets, who hold immense power over narratives (and therefore life and death political outcomes), not to set aside moral judgment when covering a candidate campaigning as a fascist.
Dishonorable Mentions (other election coverage failures this week):
Mark Jacob honorably tells us about dishonorable headline writing practices in his piece: “Why headlines matter and news outlets fail at them” - Headlines affect how we interpret the information in an article. And, unfortunately, they are often the only part of a news story that folks read. Jacob details the failures of accuracy in recent headlines that too often employ euphemism. This lack of clarity can whitewash the severity of an article’s subject matter.
Applicable MAD Guideline: Make headlines accurate and informative, not clickbait.
Extra Credit: Pro-Democracy Quote Of The Week
"The duty of the journalist is to [promote the] public enlightenment [that] is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues."
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.
Thank you, Kimberly! I can't get over the New Day video from April 2021. The level of abject normalization (joking about the bridal suite) is horrifying. People died only 3 months earlier because he lied and incited violence. Then it's all smiles on the set of New Day?
Thank you for this. Signed and shared.