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In a Facebook post, Dan Rather nails the Trump Tweets vs "Journalists" phenomenon.
Since it's a Facebook post I am bypassing the 4 paragraph rule.https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158014880230716
Donald Trump loves to tweet. And that poses a problem for journalists, as some of you have noticed in the comments. I have written on this in the past, but I think it bears a look again.
I know I sound a little like a broken record and this is something that I wish we could ignore, but we can't. It's our country's new reality. It's something the press has never encountered before either: how do you deal with a president-elect, and soon-to-be president, who regularly Tweets untrue, inflammatory or intimidating statements? And one who jumps into sensitive topics like nuclear weapons or our radical new policies towards countries like China confined to 140 characters?
By the nature of the office, when a president says something it's usually news. Words can move markets (we saw this happen a couple times since the election, including when Trump tweeted about GM early this past week). Words can also start wars and shift the direction of major domestic and foreign policy. That's why most presidents are constrained and careful with their public statements.
Not so Donald Trump. It's one of the things his supporters love about him and his critics despise. And anyone who thought Trump was going to change after the election, well, as the saying goes, the past seems to be prologue. Now the question is whether he will change the ways he tweets after he is actually in the Oval Office. His communications team has seemed to indicate he will keep tweeting what he wants, when he wants. Although you would hope he has other things to do at 6am?
Within the press (and amongst the general public) there is a brewing discussion about what these tweets mean and how to handle them. Because whether Trump is tweeting about the country's relationship with Russia (as he did in the last 24 hours), erroneously saying he won the popular vote, talking more about the wall he says will be built or getting into a Twitter fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger and bashing the ratings for a show he still owns a stake in, The Apprentice, these statements inevitably overwhelm the news cycle.
But in the meantime, there are a lot of other important stories that still aren't getting enough attention - like investigations into Trump's potential conflicts of interest from his business dealings (we still don't know exactly how he is going to separate himself his life as a businessman) or some of the more extreme positions taken by his cabinet choices. Many of whom are sure to face some rather interesting confirmation hearings.
Some in the press, and comments I have read on this page, have suggested that Trump's use of Twitter is a master stroke to deflect attention from more potentially damaging stories. Others have suggested that the more the media plays up the Tweets, the more Trump's base (which thinks the press is biased to begin with) gets riled up and the more Trump's message dominates the public discussion. I can see the merits of all of these points.
On the other hand, the president of the United States Tweeting out a lie, threatening people and institutions, betraying an obsession with conspiracy theories - that is all news too. And it's important that the press doesn't normalize it.
On this page I am going to try to walk a balance between bringing attention to tweets when I think they are serious enough to merit, but not allow my postings to be too distracted from other important news. It will be a process to figure it out and I would welcome your thoughts and continued engagement as we go through this.
In times like this I sometimes try to imagine what my journalistic hero Edward R. Murrow would do. in this case, I can imagine him shaking his head and shrugging in disbelief. "Son, I saw a lot in my time, but I never saw anything like this. Good luck, but I fear you're on your own."
(Note: parts of this post first appeared on this page back in November)
Donald Trump loves to tweet. And that poses a problem for journalists, as some of you have noticed in the comments. I have written on this in the past, but I think it bears a look again.
I know I sound a little like a broken record and this is something that I wish we could ignore, but we can't. It's our country's new reality. It's something the press has never encountered before either: how do you deal with a president-elect, and soon-to-be president, who regularly Tweets untrue, inflammatory or intimidating statements? And one who jumps into sensitive topics like nuclear weapons or our radical new policies towards countries like China confined to 140 characters?
By the nature of the office, when a president says something it's usually news. Words can move markets (we saw this happen a couple times since the election, including when Trump tweeted about GM early this past week). Words can also start wars and shift the direction of major domestic and foreign policy. That's why most presidents are constrained and careful with their public statements.
Not so Donald Trump. It's one of the things his supporters love about him and his critics despise. And anyone who thought Trump was going to change after the election, well, as the saying goes, the past seems to be prologue. Now the question is whether he will change the ways he tweets after he is actually in the Oval Office. His communications team has seemed to indicate he will keep tweeting what he wants, when he wants. Although you would hope he has other things to do at 6am?
Within the press (and amongst the general public) there is a brewing discussion about what these tweets mean and how to handle them. Because whether Trump is tweeting about the country's relationship with Russia (as he did in the last 24 hours), erroneously saying he won the popular vote, talking more about the wall he says will be built or getting into a Twitter fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger and bashing the ratings for a show he still owns a stake in, The Apprentice, these statements inevitably overwhelm the news cycle.
But in the meantime, there are a lot of other important stories that still aren't getting enough attention - like investigations into Trump's potential conflicts of interest from his business dealings (we still don't know exactly how he is going to separate himself his life as a businessman) or some of the more extreme positions taken by his cabinet choices. Many of whom are sure to face some rather interesting confirmation hearings.
Some in the press, and comments I have read on this page, have suggested that Trump's use of Twitter is a master stroke to deflect attention from more potentially damaging stories. Others have suggested that the more the media plays up the Tweets, the more Trump's base (which thinks the press is biased to begin with) gets riled up and the more Trump's message dominates the public discussion. I can see the merits of all of these points.
On the other hand, the president of the United States Tweeting out a lie, threatening people and institutions, betraying an obsession with conspiracy theories - that is all news too. And it's important that the press doesn't normalize it.
On this page I am going to try to walk a balance between bringing attention to tweets when I think they are serious enough to merit, but not allow my postings to be too distracted from other important news. It will be a process to figure it out and I would welcome your thoughts and continued engagement as we go through this.
In times like this I sometimes try to imagine what my journalistic hero Edward R. Murrow would do. in this case, I can imagine him shaking his head and shrugging in disbelief. "Son, I saw a lot in my time, but I never saw anything like this. Good luck, but I fear you're on your own."
(Note: parts of this post first appeared on this page back in November)
5 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
