Dan Rather Schools Journos On How To Cover Today’s Politics, Thank God

I am grateful that a veteran journalist with seventy years experience in the field is coming forward to confront the inadequate, if not downright disgraceful, job that the media is doing in covering Donald Trump’s current run for the presidency as if it were something normal. It is not. We have never had a situation where a one-term former president decides to take another shot at the presidency, hamstrung and laden with legal problems, in order to grift money and solve those legal problems. Grover Cleveland served two, non-consecutive terms, but not on these facts.

Yet these facts are routinely ignored and glossed over as if they don’t exist. Rather took Kristen Welker to task, without naming her, for saying that Trump “allegedly” tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. There is no alleged about it. I don’t know what’s going on with Welker and Meet The Press, but it’s about one step above Fox News these days, if that. The Trump toadying is obvious and off putting. Here are Rather’s guidelines and the fact that he even has to bring them up tells you the sorry state of affairs we’re in.

1. Enough with Both-sides-ism

   We are now living in an altered political universe. Some of the old rules no longer apply or at least need adjusting. Civil discourse is a thing of the past, as is allowing both sides their say, no matter what they say, without holding them accountable. When one side lies intentionally and repeatedly, they are no longer entitled to the benefit of the doubt. They should be held to account, right away. Do not simply repeat the narratives they spew. Make no mistake: They are exploiting the idea of equal coverage to their advantage. Don’t let them get away with it.

2. Prioritize Live Fact-Checking

   Rigorous and robust fact-checking is the best defense against misinformation, intentional lies, and deflection. Verify sources, cross-reference assertions, and provide context. If Trump says the sky is green, the story isn’t that the sky is now green; the story is that the sky is still blue and Trump got it wrong. A journalist’s commitment to ferreting out the truth builds public trust. So does adding context and perspective. 

3. Ask Lawmakers Hard Questions

   Do not let them off the hook. If they are Trump supporters, make them defend his actions and his words. Ask about the fundamental principles of democracy. Push them to go on the record that Biden won the 2020 election. Ask if they support the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. If they are Biden supporters, make sure tough questions get asked of them as well.

4. Support Investigative Journalism

   The Fourth Estate is essential to the existence of a healthy democracy. Daily coverage is necessary, but investigative journalism is critical to hold those in power accountable and to uncover corruption. It’s also expensive. We must recognize that its benefits outweigh its costs.  

5. Fight Media Consolidation

   For much of my 74-year career, journalism was considered a public service, not a revenue generator. At its inception, television news was rarely thought to be a big money maker. That changed in the 1980s when large corporations bought the networks. Newsrooms now had to turn a profit and were therefore beholden to advertisers. At about the same time, newspapers saw major declines in readership as the internet grew and news became “free.” Support your local paper, local TV station, and independent journalists.

6. Get the Story Out

   This is a corollary to the previous one. As much as we as journalists wish it weren’t true, corporate ownership and advertisers do have editorial influence in newsrooms around the country. If an important story doesn’t work for your owners, consider getting it out through another journalist at another outlet or start your own.

Trump has changed the political landscape. He has also detrimentally influenced the media landscape and forced a change in it as well. Political blogs were here before Trump, thank God, because the truth of the matter is that when Trump came on the scene it was possible to get better insight into what was going on with him and his corrupt campaign from the blogs than from the legacy media.

Similarly, a lot of new blogs came into existence, including this one. We wouldn’t be here to fill in the massive gaps in media coverage if those gaps didn’t exist to begin with. There is nothing normal about Trump. Yet the media always pandered to him and treated him as a legitimate candidate because they didn’t know what else to do. If there was a vacuum of leadership in the GOP at the time, there was an equal vacuum of leadership in media that allowed the situation to get out of control from the very beginning.

Trump won in 2016 because vast amounts of column inches on the front page of the New York Times were devoted to Hillary Clinton’s emails, while Trump’s backlog of stories on defrauding workers, sexual assault, lying to banks and to the IRS, went underreported or unreported. They’ve all since come to light, but none of the issues which have been adjudicated or are currently being adjudicated were unknown in 2016 — other than January 6, and the classified documents cases, obviously.

All the media knew was to play the both sider game and all the media knew was to create a horserace. Is still all they know, even though the situation with Trump only worsens with each passing day. You still have the likes of Kristen Welker intoning how Trump “trounced” and “decimated” Nikki Haley, while not reporting on the exit polls at all, which makes the same figures very different, when presented in context.

And as pointed out, Welker using the word “allegedly” in regards to January 6, which I regard as journalistic malpractice, is putting that issue into a context that it doesn’t belong in. Yet, so far as I know, it went unchallenged until this very moment. Kudos to Dan Rather for speaking up. When I heard it my thought was, “Swell. Just one more flight into the fantastic by mainstream media.” And maybe some corporate overlord is telling Welker what to say. I don’t want to depict NBC as Pravda — yet — but let’s just say that so far there seems to be a real reluctance to put a lot of damaging evidence about Trump front and center, while framing what evidence is out there in the most flattering of terms.

Nobody should be flattering or playing ball with Donald Trump. The man is a menace to society. There is abundant proof of that, mountains of proof. So to repackage it all and make it seem like Election 2024 is business as usual, is a form of treason, in a sense. Treason is defined as “the crime of betraying one’s country,” and if aiding and abetting the monster who tried to overthrow it on January 6, 2021 is not that, then I don’t know what is.

Let’s hope somebody decides to take Dan Rather’s suggestions to heart.