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posted by Snow on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the head-in-the-sand dept.

Just before the dawn of the Trump administration, journalism in Washington, DC, faces an existential crisis -- but virtually no one in the profession is willing to diagnose it.

Here it is: For the first time, words don't matter. In August, as a guest on MSNBC's Meet the Press Daily, I noted that voters take Donald Trump seriously but not literally, while journalists take him literally, but not seriously.

[...] And journalists keep falling for it because they, like politicians, over-value words -- and they are now covering a politician who does not. President-elect Trump still takes the same cavalier approach to verbal description as he would in hawking a condo tower that's yet to be designed. And more than enough voters don't seem to mind. Trump has spent a career interacting with journalists, but as the first president never to serve in the military, the cabinet, or another public office before his election to the White House, he's never been immersed in the word culture that drives political journalism. [...] Most recently, when Trump announced he had chosen South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations, journalists raced to re-tweet a March rant from Trump in which he said the people of South Carolina should be embarrassed by her.

[...] Writing endless columns on this or that flip-flop based on Trump's conflicting rhetoric is wasting the time of the readers and viewers who have decided that's not what matters with this particular President-elect. [...] If the press covers Trump the way it covered prior presidents -- too literally -- it may find its own customers take journalism itself a lot less seriously.

Source: CNN


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Thursday December 01 2016, @02:49PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday December 01 2016, @02:49PM (#435438)

    It was his actual family name. We're not allowed to be irreverent anymore?

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:37PM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:37PM (#435463) Journal

    It was his actual family name. We're not allowed to be irreverent anymore?

    Of course we are allowed to be irreverent in such a manner! Likewise, we would benefit from being cognizant of the fact that many intelligent people will note that we are likely opinionated morons if we choose 'calling Trump "Drumpf" [snopes.com]' as our vehicle for irreverence.

    Tit for tat. No one's disallowing anything here!

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:49PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:49PM (#435475)

      opinionated morons

      Welcome to the human race.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:30PM

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:30PM (#435735) Journal

    The special snowflakes of the fine upstanding right get a bit upset if you're irreverent. Just as well Monty Python gave retired really, or there'd be trouble.