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Was Trump threatening a bitch slap or a punch or just a bunch of unsubstantiated insults? |
Having worked as a journalist in various forms for a good
portion of my life I have often found
myself defending the media against all
kinds of criticism. It's been an almost automatic reaction to point out the
attempted objectivity knowing full well how easily it is to let our opinions
sneak into what we publish for the readers.
Here's an example of how that opinion lurks in the backs of
your minds. Many years ago as a news editor on a small paper I had quite a
heated discussion with a rising reporter about the use of adjectives, my point
being that each adjective colors a noun somehow and often that use can expose
our biases just as quickly as a straight-out declarative sentence. His argument
was that adjectives add detail and credibility to a story among other things.
A couple of years
later that reporter led a team that wrote a Pulitzer-Prize-winning series on
the influence of the Teamsters Union in Alaska. After one particular story
about the extravagances of union leaders, he told me he had written about a
"sleek corporate jet" the union owned. Then he admitted he saw what I
meant about adjectives, admitted that the use of "sleek" colored the
statement with a kind of negative judgment.
Fast forward to this year. Early on at least one media outlet allowed candidate Donald Trump to attend interviews by telephone rather than in
person. To be sure there was a lot of criticism, but the practice continued for
several months. Why the objections? I mean you are going to get answers to your
questions so what's the harm? Well, here is one type of harm, giving him unfair
advantage over his opponents. You see, if an interview is conducted via
telephone, the candidate can be sitting there with any number of experts and
advisors helping him form answers to questions. In a face-to-face interview a candidate cannot hide his ignorance and just as well, can't hide his knowledge.
This seemed to be the press giving Trump a pass on personal accountability, something
no other candidate was afforded.
Journalists can go overboard with the fairness doctrine.
Sometimes, and I am guilty of this as well, we go to such great extents to give
all sides of a story we spend more time on the opposition view than we do on
the main point of the story. That seemed to be the way with Trump.
Still, the soft handling of the candidate was very obvious
in an article CNN published on its web site July 28, giving Trump's reaction to
the opposition's convention.
The lead paragraph
included this quote from Trump saying he wanted to: "hit a
number of those speakers so hard, their heads would spin. They'd never recover."
The very next paragraph read:
"Trump often uses the term "hit" to mean verbally attack, rather
than physical contact."
Keep in mind CNN employs Trump's former
campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Whether Lewandowski had anything to do
with the paragraph is unknown, but you just have to wonder why CNN felt it
needed to virtually apologize for the candidate's threats to punch a bunch of
Democrats. He has certainly made or encouraged physical threats against
opponents in the past.
In truth, it is the candidate's responsibility
to watch what he says, not journalism's.
There are times when an explanation paragraph is necessary. But this
isn't one of them.
Trump said he wanted to "hit a
number of people." It was up to him to choose the words that best
expressed what he thought. He said "hit." There are plenty of other words
and phrases he could have used if he meant something else.
Picture this personality in delicate
negotiations with foreign leaders, or with opposing members of Congress. Is he
going to have aides sitting next to him saying "what the president meant
to say was …?" Or worse, would he have CNN reporters there to explain his
meaning for him? When the president says "bomb" he just means heavily
criticize.
Here's the video of him saying he will hit people. You can make your own decision about what he means.
It becomes more and more difficult to explain and defend the media these days.
The original story
Here's the video of him saying he will hit people. You can make your own decision about what he means.
It becomes more and more difficult to explain and defend the media these days.
The original story
