The world watches American democracy shake
But will the news media change its ways?
The fever that has enveloped the Republican party for the last decade, from the Tea Party to Trumpism, reached new heights yesterday as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Since December 12, the president tweeted at least nine times about a “Stop the Steal” protest in D.C., shepherding his millions of followers to the nation’s capital. It was an attempted coup: The executive branch, through the president himself, directed his supporters to storm the legislative branch to get the results of a democratically elected president overturned, aid and abetted by members of Congress.
This was planned for weeks. In the open.
Last night, seven Republican Senators, ignoring both reality and democracy, voted to object to the counting of votes from several states, thus refusing the will of the people of those states.
Of course, it’s not just the seditious seven, but all the Republicans who, since the election was called in November, propped this delusional thinking up by not being the lawful adults they should be.
The House minority leader, the Senate majority leader took several weeks to recognize Joe Biden as the next president. Instead of saying so, they’d go to Twitter or talk to the press muddying the reality waters.
From the New York Times, November 9, 2020:
Leading Republicans rallied on Monday around President Trump’s refusal to concede the election, declining to challenge the false narrative that it was stolen from him or to recognize President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory even as party divisions burst into public view.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican in Congress, threw his support behind Mr. Trump in a sharply worded speech on the Senate floor. He declared that Mr. Trump was “100 percent within his rights” to turn to the legal system to challenge the outcome and hammered Democrats for expecting the president to concede.
As yesterday unfolded, the world watched in shock how the American experiment shattered.
And how did the media respond? We’ve talked about how language matters, and yesterday newsrooms put out guidance as to call what was unfolding as Republican Trump supporters breached the Capitol, bringing the Confederate flag into the building, something never done before.
CBS News: "We don’t need to go out of our way to give this an overly dramatic label, This story doesn’t need that. We should not be calling this an attempted coup or a terrorist attack." Also, when referring to the people storming the Capitol: “protestors, violent protestors, a violent mob, pro-Trump protestors.”
NBC News: The crowd could be called “mob” or “rioters” but warned staff from using “coup” or “attempted coup,” per Max Tani.
Washington Post: “mob” instead of “protestors,” per Ben Smith.
Gannett: can say “rioters” or “pro-Trump mob” but reporters can’t take a position, per Smith.
The New York Post blames the left, continuing to push the false equivalency that is at the root of a lot of our ills:
And all this could well wind up empowering left-wing forces that are roughly as awful as the rightists who went berserk in Washington.
(I don’t recall the left planning to kidnap a Republican governor or invading a state capital with firearms because they were told to stay home to blunt the spread of a deadly virus.)
And this is why the fever won’t break: one of the most dangerous things right now is the echo chamber of conservative media, both from media organizations and the social platforms.
As long as Fox News and the Federalist and sites that spread lies and propaganda are allowed to continue, we will continue to get people like Florida congressman Matt Gaetz on the House floor saying, “some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters, they were masquerading as Trump supporters and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group antifa."
On Fox News, the lies continue unabated.
And unchecked:
The Washington Post reports today:
Across conservative media platforms on Wednesday, the most popular figures in the pro-Trump media movement sought to draw a bright line between the Trump supporters who incited violence and Trump himself — even going so far as to cast doubt on the rioters’ true identities or sympathies.
“I’d like to know who the agitators were,” Fox News host Sean Hannity told viewers, referring to the people seen marching on the Capitol after Trump urged them to in a speech outside the White House. Hannity maintained that “those who truly support President Trump … do not support those that commit acts of violence.”
The right is addicted to conspiracy.
This is why framing matters. Move away from both sides-ism and focus pieces on whether you’re speaking truth or helping spread lies.
This morning, Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff for communications and director of social media Dan Scavino put out a message on Trump’s behalf (since the president has been suspended for 24 hours across the major social platforms):
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
As the book closes on this administration, I hope news organizations do not book Trump officials and enablers. It will be hard for news networks not to have sitting senators, like Ted Cruz on, but by giving people who threaten democracy more air time, you do damage.
There are many reasons for yesterday’s events.
For our industry, broadly, the lack of local journalism holding their elected officials responsible for their remarks and behaviors over the last 20 years; the rise of the platforms allowing for the spread of mis- and dis-information at rapid rates (and at scale); an economic model that rewards junk content while ad tech companies propping up disinformation sites through programmatic advertising; newsrooms inability to actually speak truth, instead relying on an antiquated version of both sides-isms, euphemisms, while allowing bad-faith actors to dominate airwaves and columns; all this led to yesterday.
Eric Boehlert’s Press Run goes through several what-ifs, starting with:
It's hard to think about what might have been if the press had carried out its duties differently over the last four years — if the press had shown more courage and not allowed itself to be bullied by a mad man.
Continuing the drum beat over the last year, it’s time for news organizations to reframe their coverage, stop speaking euphemistically, and do the thing we say we do: speak truth.
Thank you for allowing me in your inbox, today and every day. If you have tips, or thoughts on the newsletter, please drop me a line. Or you can follow me on Twitter. If you arrived here through social or through a colleague, please consider signing up. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow!
Don McClean, “American Pie”
Some interesting links:
For advertisers supporting journalism by removing ads from legit news sites:
Advertisers pull commercials around news coverage of attempted coup at US Capitol (Business Insider)
For asking ‘what if the mob of rioters storming the Capitol were Black?’
The Confederacy Finally Stormed the Capitol (The Nation)
For yet another new streaming service to manage all our streaming services:
A New Service Seeks to Streamline Your Streaming (WSJ)
For the power of journalists when rioters turned off Capitol cameras:
Congressional reporters became the country's eyes and ears as rioters stormed Capitol Hill (CNN)
For Republicans calling for Trump’s impeachment:
Impeach and Convict. Right Now. (NYT)
For the history books:
On front pages after pro-Trump mob storms Capitol: ‘Chaos,’ ‘Insurrection,’ a ‘Sad day for America’ (Poynter)
For 2021 media trends:
Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2021 (Reuters Institute)