OPEN LETTER TO THE MEDIA: In the Name of Decency, Stop Tipping the Scale for Trump

[kpete]

Last edited Sat Aug 27, 2016, 09:04 AM - Edit history (2)

By Peter Daou
August 26, 2016
To the National Media:

I write this letter as a concerned American, a father who fears for his children in the event of a Trump presidency. And I write it as the CEO of a political media company with a community of over one million people whose engagement rates rival the largest media platforms in the U.S.

On the one hand, I know most of you understand that Donald is a menace to America and that Hillary is the only plausible president in the race. On the other hand, I recognize these facts:

a) You’re chasing clicks and you want a contest.

b) You face relentless (and ridiculous) accusations from the right that you have a “liberal bias.”

c) You feel compelled to appear even-handed in a misguided quest for “balanced” reporting.

d) The price of entry into the elite media club is open disdain for Hillary Clinton.

And so you twist yourselves into rhetorical pretzels trying to legitimize Trump’s unhinged behavior.

How else to explain this NY Times headline?



Now take a look at how it’s done with Hillary:





See, it shouldn’t be that hard to cover Donald in a way that feels fair. Simply apply the three immutable tenets of Hillary reporting:

Always assume bad character and attribute malicious motives.

Completely overlook and invisibilize supporters.

Focus relentlessly on negatives — and portray positives as negatives.

Now apply that same standard to Donald:

Always assume anything he says or does is corrupt. Start from the position that he’s malicious and manipulative, as you do with Hillary. Presume everything he does is part of a duplicitous scheme. Treat him like a grotesque caricature of a human being, an ambitious automaton, a power-hungry monster devoid of the most basic humanity. Attribute nefarious motives to anything he says, even the way he laughs or smiles.

Pay no mind to his supporters. None whatsoever. Don’t worry about offending them. If you have the slightest pang of guilt, just keep in mind how you’ve continually dismissed Hillary’s 15.8 million voters with your demeaning “enthusiasm gap” narrative. Tell your audience only about the people who don’t like him, never those who do. In every interview, ask him why he’s so despised. Focus relentlessly on every negative data point to portray him as an isolated outcast, just as you do with Hillary.

Roadblock every negative story, just like you’ve done with Hillary’s emails, which our research shows you’ve covered every single day for an entire year. Obsess, obsess, obsess. Endlessly obsess until your audience goes numb from the repetition, until a single word like “transcripts” or “emails” or “foundation” conjures oceans of opprobrium. Probe every permutation of his words and actions and fit them into damaging frames concocted by rival opposition researchers. Examine every nook and cranny of what you consider to be his rank awfulness, just as you do with Hillary.

I could go on, but you get the point.


MORE:
http://bluenationreview.com/in-the-name-of-decency-stop-tipping-the-scale-for-trump/
and THIS too:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/media-false-equivalence-over-racism-charges-helps-trump.html

[smirkymonkey]

1. K&R

[spanone]

2. K&R...the media has no decency.

Last edited Sat Aug 27, 2016, 09:33 AM - Edit history (1)

[rock]

3. What I have found to be

particularly irritating is that they have always referred to them as Clinton's scandals, when in fact they are Clinton's alleged scandals. Subtle, eh?

[SCVDem]

18. Funny isn't it?

Take the mass murder shooters that survivors say did it and the media will still afford the courtesy of ALLEGED!

Show me ONE conviction against Sec. Clinton. They can't.

Nice catch Rock!

[Scarsdale]

4. Deportations

Where is the latest Mrs. tRump? Was she the first one deported in his cleansing of the country of illegals? How did her parents get into this country, since her father was a big shot in the local Communist Party in Slovenia?? Were they "planted" by Vlad, and used to blackmail tRump?

[Augiedog]

5. This is what happens when a REPUBLICAN meme somehow becomes 'fact'.

[Fast Walker 52]

6. THIS!!!

[mainer]

7. I blame the media for the Iraq War

They didn't do their jobs then, they're not doing their jobs now.

Although I do give kudos to the NY Times ( which belatedly admitted their own culpability in the run-up to the Iraq War) and has realized that "impartiality" does not mean giving truth and lies equal time.

[sammythecat]

31. I do too.

The television coverage of the "run up to war" was downright disgusting. I watched a lot of CNN, it was jingoism run amuck. They were just giddy with excitement waiting for the shootin' to start. They share a whole lot of the blame for one of the worst things this country has ever done.

[mountain grammy]

8. K & R

one million K&R's. I've been screaming this since the asshole got the nomination. I can't even watch the "news" anymore. Luckily, I just spent wonderful weeks in New Mexico where national news isn't a priority and local news is all local. About the only national we saw was about Gary Johnson, the former gov of NM, and bad internet service too. Seriously, I want to hide under a rock until this is over. I can't trust my reactions to Americans who want to elect fucking Hitler.

[Stonepounder]

14. I'm with you, Mountain Granny

I simply refuse to watch the news anymore, unless there is something big happening that is not related to politics. Like tornado sirens going off, or war breaks out between Texas and Mexico (or even Texas and New Mexico). I watch the obligatory two minutes of coverage of the latest disaster, then turn off the TV as soon as the switch back to rehashing Whitewater and then covering tRump's latest insanity (with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean, say no more) attitude.

I haven't decided whether to even watch election night coverage. I may just wait until the next morning. If I see a pall of smoke over the city, tRump lost. If I see National Guardsmen going door-to-door checking for citizenship papers, he won.

[lillypaddle]

9. K^R nt

[gademocrat7]

10. K&R!

[PatSeg]

11. Spot on!

[CrispyQ]

12. Infotainment instead of real news.

K&R

[hollowdweller]

13. That's interesting. My perception is the media is hitting Trump very hard.

Seems to me they have been pretty tough on both candidates but Trump especially. Of course he has been the one doing the most fucked up and outrageous things.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

23. The goal is to demoralize both sides. Yes, Trump is bad, but HRC is also unacceptable.

They're trying to depress voters on both sides. Bad news for us, the Republicans would never not vote. I'm hearing too many Democrats suggest that they aren't voting.

[MFM008]

29. What channel are you watching?

I want it.
On my TV the MSM are all trump suckling fools.

[Skittles]

34. Channel Lalaland

[awoke_in_2003]

40. You might need to

kick someone's Channel Lalaland watching ass.

[greymattermom]

15. Trump is running a reality tv show

and the only remaining question is whether it will end like Honey Boo Boo or like the Duggars.

[rladdi]

16. Not once over the past 14 months has any media called out Trumps LIES.

Never mentions his ties to the NY mobs. NOT once in the media or printed news. They are failing the American voters by there Trump support. They seem to go have Clinton often, yet Donald Trump is an angel to them. The American press is a complete failure, as well as cable TV.

[SCantiGOP]

19. They do it daily

On my TV and newspaper.

[SCantiGOP]

17. "The media is crooked and biased"

Says Donald Trump.
Why are we pedaling the same crap?
I can assemble a group of selected headlines to make any point.

[edhopper]

20. What I also see

is constant advice to Trump on how to get back on top.

Never good things about Clinton's campaign, only negative points.

[TimeToGo]

24. Yep

[lupinella]

27. Thank you

This has been so frustrating to watch.

[Mc Mike]

21. 100% true. Media is tipping the scale for trump, and the 3 immutable tenets of Clinton coverage

should be applied to the nazi the gop is running.

Great article and insights.

[eppur_se_muova]

22. "... but you get the point. " Somehow, I doubt that they do. nt

[rurallib]

25. Let us not forget NPR

which started the day with a Hillary hit piece and a Trump praise piece.

What little I do listen to it anymore I note that I almost always hear reference to Clinton's "untrustworthiness." It is like the new NPR mantra.

[napkinz]

26. K&R!

[lupinella]

28. K&R n/t

[treestar]

30. Never seems to occur to them to simply report the facts

they have to try to spin it some way.

The weakness of being a journalist must be the feeling of power, having influence. Being respected as an opinion people will follow. But you have to earn that first, not just fool the gullible.

[Farmgirl1961]

32. Great letter

Have you sent it off to all the media outlets/newspapers in their editorial section? I suggest you do that in the hopes one of them decides to print it.

[Hekate]

33. KnR

[DallasNE]

35. And It Is So Obvious What Is Going On

Just yesterday I posted to a Facebook friend on this very subject. The overlap was on your point "A", which is the push for a horserace and the extra money that generates plus making positives into a negative and I used the Clinton Foundation as my primary example. That thing is a lot like the Gates Foundation where both do a world of good. It is like turning diet and exercise into a negative by touting the virtues of smoking.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

36. I'm gonna share this on FB if you don't mind?

Get the info OUT THERE.

[anamandujano]

37. The media will get lucid when he starts suggesting they be shot.

[kentuck]

38. I agree.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028123923

[raven mad]

39. Every time I hear "truth" and "media" I think of Jack Nicholson.

"You don't want to know the truth".

"Fair and balanced my ass" is usually my next line.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

41. K&R

[DonCoquixote]

42. The truth is

While there have been hints in previous elections, this is the first election where the media is aware that THEY are the ones in power, and that the best way for them to stay in power is to keep people as confused and angry as possible. Yes, a Bush vs Clinton election would have been a snooze festival for many, a test to see how many bored people you could keep in the room while people reached for the clicker. To be fair, an election two well known names might not have had much spice, is there anything we do not know, for good and ill, about these two? You might as well try to tell people they forgot what burgers taste like.

BUT, what the media did is that they found someone who was ONE OF THEM, someone who had been a reliable source of cheap copy for the past 20 years. The put him in the mix because, of nothing else, he would keep shoveling the media equivalent of fast food into starving maws. I am sure they thought "hey, would can just keep Trump around so we can make it to the conventions" the way drunks sip Lysol until they can get real booze. "

A funny thing happened. First, the interest, everywhere from here to (insert right wing site here) showed that they were HUNGRY for news, in many cases because they were actually HUNGRY. Many on both sides felt they came off 8 years of "don't worry, I'll pay you back, just float me till the next election." True enough, Mom and Dad were broke, and they see their children in the Media Elites discussing the world over a cup of Morning Joe, with mouths full of expensive food. Well, the financial elites realized their Media pets were just not keeping people doped up enough, so they made sure to RatF**ck the new media, flooding it with paid droids and encouraging the worst. As William Butler Yeats might put it, "the best lack all conviction, the worst are full of passionate intensity."

Of course, the Media elites love this. Do you think they are talking about the alt-right, or the Sanders left, because they want to cover a story. NO, they want to go see "see see, don't trust the internet stay tuned to US, because we are the people who will mold what you think." Meanwhile, they get to settle old scores about Obama and Clinton for not bowing to their will, for daring not to resign because they wanted it for good copy. In sort, these are the people who felt slighted, the Chris Matthews, the Maureen O dowds, the Joe Scabs, the Mikas, the people who KNOW that none of them are so much as a pimple on the arse of a Cronkite, but who fill this is their world to rule. And if Trump wins, they won't starve, indeed, they will say to the world "look, we can take a fool and make him king, stay tuned or else, and don;t you dare laugh if we try to sell you a Kanye West or Mark Cuban, because you will buy it!"

In short, the Media is nothing more than a bunch of people who play the role of both prostitute and pimp, but what back alley sex is to the body, they are for the mind and the nation.

[Scurrilous]

43. K & R

[King_Klonopin]

44. Chris Matthews (A.K.A. Tweety) has become inexcusable on MSNBC.

He allowed Michael Steele (an MSNBC token Republican) to minimize the racism accusations
against Trump without calling him on it. Willful and complicit in burying the ugly truth.

1) Clinton rightfully accuses Trump of a history of racism and attracting racist supporters --
accusations which are not baseless.

2) Trump, calculated as Carl Rove in his response, then yells "bigot, bigot, bigot!" at Clinton
for an entire news cycle -- accusations which are both baseless and meant to dilute the true
seriousness of her accusations toward Trump.

3) Steele, in perfect lock-step with the Rovian play book, then claims that all this talk about
"racism" by both candidates is bad for our political process and needs to be reined in...

PLEASE, gimme a break, you political hacks! The criticisms of Trump are valid. The
Republicans want them to stop because they score points, and rightly so, because they shine
light on the ugly truth.

Steele was using a transparent, political, end-around by claiming a false equivalency and
conflating the comments of the two candidates in order to silence Clinton and even out the
playing field in regards to the issue of race. Matthews said nothing to clarify that Clinton had
valid points and that Trump was hurling nothing but BS -- that this is NOT a case of two
candidates hurling insults at each other, that Clinton had valid points to make. He never
asked why she should stop talking about Trump's racist history if, in fact, it was all true.
Instead, Matthews just nodded in tacit agreement and let Steele get away with the political,
slight-of-hand parlor trick. Spineless and dishonest.

Hardball pulls this shit all the time. Matthews is always willing to be the useful idiot.
He always hedges his bets, then claims he backed the right horse in the end. It is also in his
best interests to make a presidential race appear to be close, rather than to be an objective
journalist.

[icarusxat]

45. so nice to see that I am not the only one who has noticed this treatment from the "liberal media"

I have gone so far as to ask friends how Secretary Clinton has "ruined" our country. Despite all of the vitriol clouding the airways they could not name one substantiated accusation...

[marble falls]

46. Its more fun to cover a horse race than a blowout.

[Blue_Tires]

47. Someone should tweet this to Greenwald

I'd do it myself, but the coward blocked me