On the Media: The Game Has Changed
As tensions between the press and the president-elect continue to mount, a look at why some news outlets chose to publish a salacious but unverified set of allegations about Donald Trump. Plus, how the rules of journalism may change in the Era of Trump and what journalists need to do to adjust; and writer Rebecca Solnit on finding hope in dark and uncertain places.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/on-the-media-2017-01-13
Secret Dossiers, Muzzled Journalists...The Job of Reporters in 2017 12 min
The American public learned this week about a federal investigation into a 35-page dossier with some salacious, but unverified, dirt on Donald Trump. Journalists from several outlets had seen the document prior, but had held off on releasing it. That changed Tuesday, when CNN reported on the dossier and Buzzfeed posted the full text online.
Trump retaliated at his Wednesday news conference when he refused to take a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta. But rather than defend press freedom by demanding an answer to his question, the press corps moved on and questioned Trump on other topics. This fierce competition, observes Putin watchdog Alexey Kovalev, is one of a few similarities to the weakened state of the Russian media.
Whether Buzzfeed’s decision to post the full, unverified dossier was justified is now a further point of contention in the media at a time when journalists are still uncertain about how to effectively cover the new president. In an internal memo, Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith wrote that "publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017." Brooke speaks with Slate’s Will Oremus about the sticky ethics behind Buzzfeed’s decision and what this episode teaches us about newsworthiness.
A Taxonomy of Trump Tweets 8 min
As we all know, Donald Trump's tweets have become a potent force in our new era. On the one hand, a single tweet can cripple opponents, activate supporters, move markets, and subsume the news cycle. On the other, they're a window into Trump's wee-hours, unfiltered id. But when his tweets are full of half-truths, distortions, and often bold-faced lies, should journalists treat them as normal presidential utterances, or something else? Cognitive linguist George Lakoff believes that the press must understand how Trump uses language if we're to responsibly report on his tweets, not just magnify their misinformation. He talks with Brooke about the categories he's come up with for thinking about Trump tweets.
How Not to Feed the Beast 8 min
In the Age of Trump, the press face a paradox: the president-elect routinely does things that, coming from the president, should be news -- from tweeting insults at celebrities to telling bald-faced lies to holding outrageous press conferences next to stacks of blank paper. But when they cover these events, journalists can find themselves not holding the president-elect accountable but rather playing into the spectacle, while other news gets lost in the shuffle.
What is the media to do? Nathan Robinson, editor-in-chief of Current Affairs, argues that while the press can't control what the president does, and they certainly can't ignore him, there are specific ways they can do their jobs better.
Trump's Reality Distortion Field 9 min
It doesn't take extensive media fact-checks to know that Donald Trump makes false statements freely and often--from claiming he saw thousands of Arabs celebrating 9/11 during his campaign to making up unemployment numbers in his latest press conference.
But according to Ned Resnikoff, senior editor at ThinkProgress, when Donald Trump tells a lie, it's not so much about deceiving his audience or promoting a calculated narrative as it is about destabilizing reality altogether. He talks to Brooke about the way Trump's lies create an alternate version of reality with no internal logic, thus devaluing the very meaning of truth.
Rebecca Solnit on Hope, Lies, and Making Change 11 min
Since the election, Bob's been experiencing some despair. How can he move forward when the future looks so bleak? In an effort to shake him out of this state, we decided he should speak with Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities. Solnit reminds us that the future is unknowable -- and that's a good thing. Why? Because it creates space for creative intervention. She is impatient with despair, not only because it paralyzes political action, but because the lessons of history teach us that change happens in unexpected and often non-linear ways.
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