Ah! Trump. You can take to the streets in your millions round the world, or sit quietly at home waiting for the storm to pass. You can applaud a decision to invite the Great Donald to meet the Queen, or fume with fury. In democratic theory, at least, you have a choice. But what if you’re part of that jigsaw: a journalist?
Here is one answer from the frontline of Trump wars, the Post in Washington DC. Fred Hiatt is the paper’s editorial editor. “There is nothing normal or healthy … about a president obsessing over his ratings, taunting those he calls his ‘enemies’ and branding journalists ‘among the most dishonest human beings on earth.’
“But we can’t allow ourselves to be brought down to that level. We do not spoil for a knife fight. Whatever comes at us over the next four years, what we should wield is our pens and our laptops, our facts and our fairness”.
A trifle pious, perhaps. The Post can’t and shouldn’t try to speak for all combatants here. But there is brute practicality to go with the piety. If the press, in White House terms, is truly the “opposition party”, its voice loses credibility. If it shrieks and screams, it will not be listened to – indeed, may already not be being listened to by those who elected Trump once and may elect him again. If, six months on, the street protests have faded, because thought overblown, as summer comes, that is a victory for the new administration.
The media can’t afford to become the booming voice of anti-Trump. For that is one short step from propaganda: and from the suspended belief that sets Trump free.
View all comments >