At this moment in time, there is no bigger opponent of the news media in America than the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Ironically, there are very few people in the country who owe more of their success to the news media than Mr. Trump. In a recent article from The Atlantic, David Graham (2017) claimed that Trump has a unique perspective on the utility of the American press system: “Even as he railed against reporters at campaign rallies, the candidate knew full well that his ability to play to the papers and television had inflated his mediocre business career into a world-famous one, and his long-shot candidacy into a presidential victory.” Trump has used his influence and position of power to undermine the entire field of journalism, by appealing to the very news values that journalists are taught to pursue in their reporting, and then smearing their credibility to sow dissension and confusion throughout the public. This sort of behavior from an elected official at the highest position in the country not only threatens the future of journalism, but the whole concept of a democratic society in America.
There are many qualities that can deem a person, story, or incident “newsworthy,” but according to Harcup and O’Neill (2016), the current top five news values are, in order: the power elite, celebrity, entertainment, surprise, and bad news (p. 2). All five of these news values fueled Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and have continued to surround him and his administration through the first year of his presidency. Trump has been in the media spotlight for over 40 years, and as a former reality television star, he was already a celebrity with entertainment shock value before becoming a presidential candidate. By establishing himself as an extremist, confrontational member of the power elite during the 2016 campaign, Trump made himself absolutely irresistible to journalists across the country. From calling Mexicans “rapists” and other disparaging names, to mocking disabled reporters and Gold Star families, to being caught on film bragging about his sexual harassment of women, Trump’s brazen disregard for political correctness and general civility earned him national airtime on a daily basis. Stephen Cushion (2016), an author for The Conversation, explained that this effectively distorted the coverage of the presidential race, because Trump, unlike many of his political counterparts, “mastered the art of what Frank Esser has called ‘self-mediatization’: the ability to set the media agenda by appealing to the news values of mainstream journalists.” In fact, according to Cushion (2016), “between the beginning of 2015 and 26 February 2016, Trump received over 400 minutes of airtime on the ABC, NBC and CBS evening newscasts, compared to less than 100 minutes for both his main Republican opponents.” Cushion (2016) also pointed out that the two most prominent Democratic candidates combined, Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, received less than half of the coverage as Trump did during that time. With so much national exposure and publicity— good or bad— Trump was able to push his agenda and become a household name without even needing to engage his opponents on a political level.
Tony Schwartz, co-author of the 1987 book, Trump: The Art of the Deal, was interviewed about Trump’s methods of gaining publicity in an episode of PBS Frontline titled “President Trump” (Kirk, 2017). Schwartz spoke about the idea that even the worst publicity can become good publicity, because, as Trump rationalized, people may say terrible things during the initial outcry of a scandal, but “a month later or three months later, they don’t remember what it was they didn’t like about you, they just remember they know your name” (Kirk, 2017). Trump was able to exploit the numbing quality of repetition in the media throughout his presidential campaign, until many Americans simply felt more familiar with him than the other candidates. Trump’s all-out assault on the news media began after winning the 2016 election, but he had been using the platforms of television and the internet to build a following for nearly two decades leading up to his campaign.
Donald Trump’s reality television show, The Apprentice, began in 2004, where contestants competed in hopes of earning a job for the wealthy real-estate mogul, whose personal and professional life were glamorized and glorified by the show’s creators. The Apprentice was quite popular, especially in its earlier seasons, with 28 million people tuned in for the first season finale, and even larger numbers for season two (McKelly, 2017). Roger Stone, a political consultant for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was asked how he thought The Apprentice affected the general public’s opinion of Trump, to which he answered: “For fourteen seasons, [Trump] is viewed by the voters, by the population, in a perfect light. Now, I understand the elites say, ‘Oh, that’s reality TV…’ But voters don’t see it that way. Television news and television entertainment, it’s all television!” (Kirk, 2017). This is a phenomenon that cultural theorists and media ecologists have been concerned about for years. Neil Postman (1985), in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, wrote, “What is happening here is that television is altering the meaning of ‘being informed’ by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation…misleading information—misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented, or superficial information” (p. 107). Postman warned that the continued dissemination of ‘disinformation’ could lead to an illusion of knowledge among television viewers, when in fact they would be led away from true knowledge. As the prescient author reasoned, “when news is packaged as entertainment, that is the inevitable result” (Postman, 1985, p. 107). Trump’s bold, arrogant, dramatic reality television persona made for good ratings, and accumulated many fans and followers—enough to vote him into office— but after more than a year as president, he has maintained that unapologetic, relentless reality star persona, which threatens dire repercussions from the civic and consequential duties of the office.
It didn’t take long for Trump to vilify the mainstream news media after the 2016 election. At his first press conference as president-elect, Trump refused to take questions from CNN’s Jim Acosta, pointing at the journalist and claiming that he—and the entire CNN organization— was “fake news” (Carson, 2017). Since then, Trump has regularly taken to Twitter to berate prestigious and reputable news organizations such as CNN, ABC, NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post. The irony surrounding the president’s obsession with “fake news” is the large amount of intentionally false and fabricated news stories produced by alt-right and conspiratorial sites that were widely circulated on social media in the months leading up to the election. These stories led with incendiary headlines such as “Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS” and “Pope Backs Trump,” that many people believe swung the election in Trump’s favor (Carson, 2017). By turning on the mainstream news media after his victory, citing “crooked media deceptions” by “very dishonest people” (Landler & Haberman, 2017), Trump fanned the flames of confusion among U.S. citizens. Because Trump is such a “newsworthy” character by Harcup & O’Neill’s standards, the mainstream media has an obligation to write about his outrageous actions, even if he drags their name through the mud in the process. When paired with Trump’s penchant for fabrication and contempt for the truth, the journalistic coverage of his words and actions can become a threat to an informed democratic society.
In late August, shortly after a group of white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Trump held a rally in Phoenix, Arizona that was described as “an angry, unbridled and unscripted performance that rivaled the most sulfurous rallies of his presidential campaign” (Landler & Haberman, 2017). He attempted to deflect any anger toward him onto the news media, claiming that they were responsible for the increased divisiveness in the country rather than himself, and even “whipped the crowd into fevered chants of ‘CNN Sucks’” (Landler & Haberman, 2017). David Graham (2017) warns that these attempts to silence the free press are a threat to the First Amendment rights of the entire population, not just the journalists he attacks: “The president has repeatedly and flagrantly attempted to mislead the American public; those deceptions are well-chronicled, because there is a free press to document them.” This type of flagrant assault on the mainstream news media could lead to a deterioration of the public’s confidence in the credibility of the press, and even the public’s ability to independently gather information for making educated judgements and decisions about their elected officials. The danger of all this, according to James Carson (2017), is that “in an atmosphere where you never know what might happen next or what to believe, you’re going to be more receptive to hyperbole and truth distortion.” Donald Trump is aware of this, and has not been shy about embellishing—or even creating his own— facts and reality surrounding his presidency, going so far as to tweet: “Any negative polls are fake news” (Carson, 2017).
Without a doubt, Donald Trump has created a hostile news environment for reporters and readers alike, using his newsworthiness to undermine the organizations that cover him. But blame doesn’t lie exclusively on Trump’s shoulders. As the author Benjamin Barber (2008) points out, “With the news cycle outracing the news, the news must recycle the few legitimate ‘big stories’ it has, rerunning the stomach-churning images of the fire/ demonstration/ trial/ accident/ election/ shooting/ indictment…all day or for days (weeks) at a time” (p. 101). Since Trump commands so much of the news media’s attention these days, it’s difficult for an ordinary citizen to go a full day without exposure to his antics. Furthermore, it’s difficult for a citizen to effectively reason and reflect on his antics within the extremely fleeting nature of the news system today; within 24 hours (or less), Trump will have said or done something else to make headlines and draw our attention away from his previous behavior. As Postman (1985) wrote, “There is no murder so brutal, no earthquake so devastating, no political blunder so costly…that it cannot be erased from our minds by a newscaster saying, ‘Now…this’” (p. 99).
While it can be easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of breaking news in American society today, in order to combat the current assault on the free press, citizens must take responsibility for their methods of news consumption. Just as professional journalists have an obligation to the pursuit of truth, so too should ordinary citizens when consuming news, especially as the rise of internet and social media journalism continues. In Chris Hedges’ (2010) book, Empire of Illusion, he asserts that cultures die if they fail to distinguish between illusion and reality, writing, “The dying gasps of all empires, from the Aztecs to the ancient Romans to the French monarchy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, have been characterized by a disconnect between the elites and reality” (p. 143). Hedges (2010) rhetorically asks if our nation will observe sobriety and rationality, placing stronger values on simplicity and humility, “or will we follow the demagogues and charlatans who rise up in moments of crisis and panic to offer fantastic visions of escape?” (p. 145). Donald Trump has pledged to “make America great again,” but greatness in a democratic society begins with a free press to truthfully inform its citizens. Perhaps, by bringing so much attention to the issue, Donald Trump has prompted news consumers to become more cognizant of the ways in which they gather information, and has inadvertently kick-started an American democratic revolution in the unpredictable Digital Age.
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