Readers will know that the other day, in what you might call an “exercise in writing towards an audience,” I encouraged Donald Trump to recognize that the media, the Establishment, and various other Powers That Be are aligned against him, and will do everything in their power to ensure he loses, so that he should strategically quit and name his replacement instead.
As a reminder: I do not support Trump, I do not support Clinton, I think both are bad enough that the usual rules about “lesser evil” don’t apply, and, at this point, am planning on voting 3rd party or not at all.
But here’s the trouble: the media is actively out to prevent his election – and their active partisanship may seem like the right thing to do, in 2016, but is dangerous in the long term.
Witness the story of Trump and the Crying Baby.
For the past week, we’ve heard, repeatedly, reports that go something like this one, from CNN:
Donald Trump, trying to reassure a distressed mother with a crying baby, said Tuesday that he loves hearing babies cry at his rallies and told her not to worry — only to change his mind just a moment later. . . .
But less than two minutes later, as the baby continued to wail, Trump took back his words.
“Actually I was only kidding, you can get the baby out of here,” he said to laughs. “I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I’m speaking. That’s OK. People don’t understand. That’s OK.”
You know this. It was plastered all over the news.
Until yesterday, when the Washington Post finally reported,
As it happens, Daniel Dale, a reporter from the Toronto Star, was sitting right behind her and wrote that the entire incident was mischaracterized.
The actual facts were that the baby, after Trump’s first comment, had calmed. Then the baby cried again, the mom left, and as she was on her way to the exit, Trump made his second comment. The mom and baby returned to their seats later. Here’s the link to the original report, which the Post linked to.
This description was confirmed by the mother herself:
Dale’s account is confirmed by the mother herself — Virginia resident Devan Ebert. (She spoke on the condition that we not report her town.)
“The media did in fact blow this entire situation out of proportion,” she wrote in an email. “I’m not looking to make it into anything bigger. All I’m hoping is that Trump personally is aware that I am in agreement with him and stand by the fact that I was never kicked out of the rally.”
She said that she decided to leave the auditorium on her own because “it’s the considerate thing to do for others around, trying to listen or for those presenting,” adding that “it was blatantly obvious he was joking.” She said she stood with the police officers outside the auditorium, who were very kind to her, and then returned to her seat once her child had calmed down.
“I had a wonderful time and I appreciate Trump’s graciousness during a time that is usually considered stressful,” she said. “His comic relief was a breath of fresh air.”
And those of us who have had experiences of crying children know this — take the kid out, calm the kid down, bring the kid back.
Now, I’m not defending Trump as a candidate. But reports such as these — breathless reports of how dastardly a man Trump is, with a walked back, “never mind,” are a form of crying wolf that condition Trump supporters and potential supporters to shrug off any similar incident, or even worse statements, as “they took him out of context.”
What’s more, at a recent joint convention of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Hillary Clinton held a “press conference” or press conference-like event in which she received applause from her questioners, as reported at The Hill. Now, to be sure, Time Magazine provides a defense of sorts:
But those in the crowd noted that the audience included a lot of people who are not actually journalists, including public relations and communications professionals, as well as columnists and commentators who are supposed to have opinions.
“Here’s what people don’t understand. First and foremost, the room is not filled just with journalists,” Roland Martin, a journalist who moderated a panel prior to Clinton’s remarks, told TIME. “You hear a smattering of applause in the room. Also there are people in the room who are opinion folks.”
And the Time article also makes it clear that the questions were moderator-chosen so the event isn’t really a press conference in the ordinary definition of the term.
But reports like these further undermine trust in the media — and move us farther along the path of voters on both sides getting their news from one-sided sources.
image from pixabay, https://pixabay.com/en/baby-tears-small-child-sad-cry-443393/, public domain
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