The Mainstream Media Is Moving Right. Here’s What We Can Do About It.

Third, people in the anti-Trump camp should embrace a certain kind of media criticism. While CBS and the Post are intentionally moving right and are probably fine with losing some anti-Trump consumers, I’m not sure that the rest of the mainstream media is in that same place. They want to appear neutral but not lose audience share. So they are susceptible to being influenced and shamed into more honest journalism. 

Here’s how to do it. When their coverage is criticized, mainstream editors and reporters will quickly cite stories and paragraphs that portray Trump negatively. This isn’t hard: Trump is one of the most dishonest and unethical politicians in American history. Of course news outlets can find some stories they have done that are critical of him! What these reporters are ignoring is that the headlines, social posts, and first few paragraphs of their pieces are often framed in ways designed not to offend conservatives. They want to cast themselves as not liberal to conservative readers but claim to liberals they are taking on Trump. We can’t let them have it both ways. NPR, the Times, and other outlets should be flooded with criticism of not the stories they select to cover, which are generally fine, but the tone and tenor of them, which often goes out of its way to cast Trump as acting presidential in the same way that George W. Bush, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden did. 

None of my suggestions come close to addressing the calamity we face right now. One of the main ways autocrats gain power is by capturing and controlling the news in their countries. That is happening here too, like so many other signs of authoritarianism. Bari Weiss isn’t qualified to be a correspondent at CBS, never mind editor in chief. But at least now, Americans can choose non-Trump-friendly news, other news outlets can cover the stories that the Trump-friendly outlets won’t, and many important news organizations don’t want to be too pro-Trump. News appeasing Trump has gone mainstream, but we still have other media.