New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg was granted front-page real estate in the August 8 newspaper for an essay called, "The Challenge Trump Poses to Objectivity." As with all things revolving around this candidate, this is a Crisis demanding Deep Thinking. Rutenberg asks, "If you're a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation's worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?"
Answer: like a dangerous, racist demagogue.
Why wasn't the answer "Impartiality is mandatory in political coverage"? If a reporter cannot manage this -- and some simply cannot -- then he should recuse himself from the assignment. This is first-semester journalism. Why can't that cardinal rule be followed?
How is this suddenly a crisis? Trump's been campaigning for over a year. Where were all those journalists presumably struggling with this issue (Rutenberg wouldn't otherwise be writing about it) during the primaries? Answer: Trump was running against other Republicans, and that was fun. But now he's running against Hillary Clinton, and her camp is pushing this narrative, so an obedient media must project it, as it always does, which leads to the next point.......To Read More....
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