From emergency to active threat: We have again switched settings in our coverage of Donald Trump

[Nevilledog]

https://pressthink.org/2020/08/from-emergency-to-active-threat-we-have-again-switched-settings-in-our-coverage-of-donald-trump/

On March 19 of this year we alerted readers to a shift in our coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency. We said then that we were moving to an “emergency” setting, which had these consequences for how we would treat Trump as a figure in the news.

To prevent him from misinforming you about matters of life and death — the coronavirus — we will no longer carry his news conferences live.

From all normal press relations with the Trump White House our reporters will withdraw. We will not attend briefings, we won’t gather around him as he departs in his helicopter, and we will not enter into “off the record” arrangements with White House sources.

In reporting on his public statements, in addition to asking, “does this fairly represent what he said?” we will ask: is what he said something we should be amplifying?

In general, we will shift the focus of our coverage from what Trump is saying to what his government is doing.

If we feel we have to report something he said that contains deceptions and falsehoods, we will use the “truth sandwich” method for reporting on false or dubious claims.

*snip*

[regnaD kciN]

1. To continue...

What do we mean by an active threat? Look again at what is happening:



1. Using the public platform of the presidency, Donald Trump is trying to persuade Americans that their elections cannot be trusted, while standing for election as a candidate himself.



2. Using the formal powers of the presidency, he is trying to make this reckless claim come true by preventing the Post Office from performing reliably as the country turns to mail-in voting.



3. And he is doing this during an election in which a reliable mail service is an imperative because of a public heath crisis that his presidency has failed to contain.



Put 1, 2 and 3 together — examine the way they loop into one another — and it’s more than a civic emergency; it’s a national crisis. News coverage has to reflect that. We can’t just cover these events in bigger type. We have to take commensurate action.

[rampartc]

2. 3 1/2 years too late

or more to the point, this policy should have gone into effect long before this azzwhole decided to run for president.