By: Mildred Robertson
Donald Trump’s crusade
against the media is somewhat ironic, in that it was the media that provided
the vehicle by which he was able to ascend to the most powerful position in the
world. Trump’s outrageous antics made
for good television. And the mainstream media, tabloids, and social media
consumed his preposterous behavior like a fat man at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
No one actually believed that
the American public would actually elect this misogynistic, ill-informed,
inarticulate, racist, bombastic, uncultured man-child to our nation’s highest
office. Even the man himself, I believe, did not consider it a possibility at
first blush.
So he was entertaining. He made
good copy. He boosted the ratings. And high ratings meant high profit. It
seemed like a win-win for the media and the would-be-king. Except, he actually
became king.
The media allowed the Trump
saga to suck up all the oxygen in the room; first choking out any viable
opposition in the Republican Primary and then strangling every policy-wonkish
pitch produced by the Clinton campaign; a campaign that struggled both with
message and the onslaught from Bernie-ites on the left and chants of “lock her
up” on the right.
Hillary clearly did not have
the charisma of her predecessor; but she was every bit as qualified and
prepared to take on the burden of making the hard decisions that are the
rock-bed of our democracy. President Obama even established that as he
campaigned for her across the country.
Many of us, along with the
media, thought that Clinton would surely lock this election up with the
combination of a steady hand, and a gender advantage. Particularly when her
opponent was so clearly unstable, and his opinion of women was so clearly
objectionable.
And then there was that
gender thing. It was 2016. The era should have been long passed when a glass
ceiling could keep a woman from ascending to the highest seat in our nation.
Women have risen to power in countries across the globe that are much farther
removed from the democratic principles upon which our nation was built. So who
would imagine that someone with Hillary Clinton’s record could possibly be
defeated by someone like Donald Trump?
So, the media thought, let’s
make the money. Let’s promote his every tweet. Let’s broadcast every speech he
makes. Let’s discuss ad nauseam what he said and to whom he said it. Let’s talk
about who would welcome his musings and who would be offended.
The media seemed to give
little thought to the fact that Trump’s unsophisticated followers would accept
every word from his mouth as truth, particularly when, at first, there was very
little push back from journalists. So he
said that immigrants from Mexico were rapists and murderers…and the public
believed him. He said that women were objects that you could just grab by the genitals…and
they said, “Well, okay if you say so.” He said that he would build a wall on our southern border and make Mexico pay for it, and Trumpsters chanted, “Build that
wall.” The media broadcast his every word,
his every tweet, without concern for the truth or the fallacy in them.
By the time the media
realized the American public was falling for Trump’s vaudeville stick, it was
far too late. They had already given him millions of dollars of free media, and
had catapulted him to the center of the world stage. They had created a persona
that was too big to defeat.
Having served its purpose,
Trump then turned on the very entity that created him. It is clear that a
special mission exists for the media in a free and open society. But the U.S.
media failed to rise to that mission at this most critical time in our
country’s history.
As we stand on the brink of a
political shift that could possibly send our nation reeling into fascism it is
imperative that the media take its place as the arbiter of truth. It seems
that, after years of granting Trump a free pass, the media has finally embraced
its revered status as the Fourth Estate. It appears the media is now ready to
live up to its calling to help preserve and protect the very foundation of the
Constitution.
That means speaking truth to
power. That means giving no quarter to lies and half-truths. That means
broadcasting facts and not propaganda. That means identifying an “alternative
fact” as what it is—a lie. I believe that we must live up to the Journalist’s
Creed written by Walter Williams in 1914, which states in part:
“I believe that
the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the
full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance
of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust.”
The media was not set aside
in our Constitution to entertain us; but to inform us. They were not called to
provide us opinions about the issues that threaten our liberty, but to give us
facts. There have been times in our history when they have stepped up to that
high calling. Now has not been one of those times.
It is imperative that a free
citizen be an informed citizen. That is why the Founders set the media apart in
our Constitution. We cannot allow this administration or any other to beguile
the American public. If there ever has been a time when the media needs to
embrace its calling and its creed, now is such a time.
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