Cover the News, Don't Profit From It

Chris Wallace has been drawing lots of praise for standing up to Donald Trump and delivering a good tough interview in which he wasn’t afraid of challenging the assortment of lies Trump normally spreads on his other interviews and rallies and…well, whenever the hell he decides to open his mouth. Donald Trump was absolutely rattled whenever Wallace pointed out the fallacies, even stopping the interview multiple times in order to try to intimidate him and be proved right by the information held by the disgruntled colleges in the White House.

Its strange, but one of the best interviews of Trump came from Fox News---a network notoriously pro-Trump, and notorious for helping spread some of the chaos that has been inflicted on Americans in the last three years. Wallace did risk his job partially by sparring with the president Fox News constantly tries to appeal to. But this speaks layers more about the competition as opposed to the inner workings of Fox News; between CNN, ABC News, MSNBC, and other American news stations and newspapers, their treatment and handling of the Trump Administration quite frankly has been disappointing to say the least. Their approach of Trump’s mannerisms has been more to draw in ratings as opposed to actually informing the viewers of what is happening, of what is true, or what is falsehood. Regardless of political leanings, very few journalists have been successful in properly handling this terrible era; and this all started in 2015 when Trump started running.

One of the reasons why some (not all, but some) of the late night comedians and television shows are being trusted just as much as the actual news is because of their approach to research, their ability to approach both sides, they cover topics outside the Trump atmosphere, and methods of methodically teaching the audience as opposed to simply entertaining them and regurgitating the outrage from the rest of the country. Currently carrying this mantle best is John Oliver and his excellent program Last Week Tonight (That HBO budget and extended breaks between episode clusters helps a lot). But before him, there was the legendary Jon Stewart.

Jon Stewart did a spectacular job willing to not only criticize both sides, but also enter the belly of the beast of Fox News and CNN and battle them on their home turf. I honestly miss his little rivalry against Bill O’Reilly. Stewart would have been perfect for coverage of the 2016 election, especially because news networks were covering Trump like a joke, and fully broadcasting his rallies with limited interruption and pushback. This became free marketing that would help give Trump the victory. Now look at us. I miss him so so much.

Blaming the media entirely sounds like a Trumpian move, but the media should be looked at in terms of partially why things are so wildly out of control. Jon Stewart once blasted CNN and others on Late Night because he says the media’s approach to Trump appears to be that of a scorned lover after the 2016 election. At first they were obsessed with Trump, and ultimately it became a rivalry after Trump declared them all fake news following months of electoral coverage. It is good to point out some of the atrocities committed by Trump, but other times they toss in news about him without correction, sometimes the networks as a way to avoid alienating some of their audience avoid calling out certain phrases and actions as what they really are: white supremacist actions. CNN has been accused many times of avoiding using the term “racist” when the action being discussed is indeed racist.

Every single day the news appears to be about Trump, it becomes tiring. Yes, he a terrible president, and yes, he says a lot of garbage and does a lot of stupid things. But, the coverage of other events during this time period has been disappointing. The American news covers certain devastating topics with seriousness, but then it quickly gets forgotten in favor of the next big rally or next wild quotable from the idiot in chief, therefore overshadowing tragedies and news that is still happening.

We still have children locked up in cages in the border, we still have family separations, we still have ICE and the police breaking dozens of laws, we still have Black Lives Matter, we still have a refugee crisis on the Mexican side of the border with the tent cities, there’s still the drug wars the United States is clearly losing, Puerto Rico is still struggling post-Maria, the damn post office is under attack, and that’s just the news happening within our borders. I haven’t even gotten to the still-relevant news about the concentration camps in China and Australia…let’s instead talk about the dumbass idea about buying Greenland…

Then we have the guests. Instead of calling in experts throughout this administration, the news networks enjoy calling out their usual core of politicians and close allies as their guests---this is especially true with Fox News, but CNN and MSNBC is also guilty of this albeit in a much smaller scale. CNN has no reason to keep bringing in Rick Santorum or Rudy Giuliani, but yet they keep making appearances, and keep talking batshit crazy. The more neutral news like BBC, NPR employ a wide variety of guests and strategists and experts throughout the course of the year, people that properly analyze events and offer deeper insight.

This is all part of Capitalistic America’s approach to everything, from health to the prison to news. Money, however you can achieve it. The goal is strong ratings above properly informing. The goal is to make money, not focus on certain topics or do research and make the necessary corrections. The goal is to have those sound bites, those “ah-ha” moments. Part of the battling in the White House press briefings are said moments where sound quips are attempted, as opposed to challenging the actual content being presented. Don’t just dispute, spit out information, ask them to elaborate, call them out, don’t seek small snarky remarks, expose the big lies. Throughout this administration, Trump and Pence and the rest of the White House cronies have been able to walk away from nearly every interview scot-free, usually burying themselves in their stupidity but it doesn’t get any acknowledgement in the same moment, only in the analyzing afterwards. It does no good to not challenge the statements as they happen. It makes CNN and folks money, especially as they interview former friends and ex-communicated family of Trump, but it doesn’t quite inform of us of anything outside what we already know.

Bernie Sanders openly criticized CNN’s debating formats of 2016 and 2020 because he believes the only way you can grab attention is through quotable phrases, as opposed to creating discussions concerning the material covered. I know this paragraph is going to have some bias due to my Bernie Bros status, but it speaks layers when the news covers how long somebody spoke as opposed to what they actually spoke about post-debates. Even worse, some of these viral or eye-catching moments don’t get properly vetted or researched before being unveiled and discussed in the news. CNN had to settle a lawsuit with those teenagers during the infamous encounter with the Native American protestor because of the way it was presented. It was covered for days before the rest of the footage emerged and slightly nixed the narrative. In another example, Bernie Sanders’ campaign suffered a brutal blow after he was accused of sexist comments towards Elizabeth Warren even though Bernie loudly denied all of it---it was never vetted before discussing it a good 24 hours prior to the final debate earlier this January. Then there was the Iowa incident, which I have yet to forgive them for, when they declared Mayor Pete the winner even though there were barely any results to even report.

I am aware that the folks at CNN, ABC, MSNBC don’t hold a candle to the ridiculousness coming from the Fox News sector, but it must be pointed out that their inconsistent ways of reporting the news during this era remains underwhelming and disappointing. The lack of focus on Black Lives Matter has especially remained a bitter pill to swallow, especially after they stopped covering it once it was being revealed that most of the initial looting and violence was coming from the police. Not saying the media should be fully mistreated as touted by Trump and his ridiculous cult, but we should be stronger in calling them out and demanding better quality news coverage. Stop talking about Trump’s taxes, please.

Not everything has to be Trump, not everything has to be some two-sided argument in the primetime late nights. Not everything has to be reported immediately without vetting, and most important just because a topic has been around for a few weeks or longer does not mean you should put it in the backburner. A lot is happening, and we need better coverage of all this news as opposed to just over-dissecting racist tweets and outrageous statements made by Donald Trump. I just want better news coverage, I just want smarter debates, better and smarter information, that is all. The richest country in the world with outstanding access to information deserves better news coverage. Otherwise, we have to wait for the late late nights for John Oliver, Samantha Bee, and Hasan Minhaj.

Please, CNN and others, do better, stay away from the techniques employed by the sensationalized hysteria-infused Fox News.

Loudly expose the fake news, don’t just report it and make money from it.