Hillary Clinton asked why the media won’t cover Trump as a threat to America and compared it to how they covered Biden.
Clinton told Rachel Maddow:
I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is. You know, the late great journalist, Harry Evans, you know, one time said that, you know, journalists should, you know, really try to be objective that means cover the object.
Part of what Trump is counting on is for people to get desensitized. I mean, oh my gosh. Did you hear what he said yesterday? Did you hear who he attacked? Did you hear the viciousness? And it just like with a shrug? Ok, fine. We’re moving on.
Well, Americans need to understand that they have to take Trump both seriously and literally, he has said what he wants to do. He and his allies with Project 2025 his desire to be a dictator, at least on day one, all of that is in the public record.
And I believe that more Americans have to be, you know, willing to endure what frankly is discomforting and to some extent, kind of painful to take him at his word and to be outraged by he represents. And then finally, the hopeful side of this is that I do think more and more Americans are, you know, rejecting the kind of chaos that he represents. We can’t go back. That’s what the Harris campaign says all the time.
Video:
Hillary Clinton tells #Maddow “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is.” pic.twitter.com/zsFNcrAcCv
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 17, 2024
Hillary Clinton was correct to call out the hypocrisy. The corporate media spends its time trying to normalize Trump. Each day, the corporate media covers Trump as a normal presidential candidate. It is hardly ever mentioned that Trump is a convicted felon who was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll.
A press was interested in protecting democracy and the truth would cover Trump as a threat to the country instead of as a sideshow that distracts them with each new shiny object.
If the media covered Trump with the same intensity that the covered Biden, the tone of the coverage would be different, voters would be better informed, and democracy would be in a safer place.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association