The job hasn't changed

During the course of the 2024 campaign, and certainly even before, the news media in this country, of which I consider myself a proud member, did our best to both inform, and then warn the American people about the great harm a second term of Donald Trump would mean to our future.

That was our job.

This nation’s news media learned during Trump’s first run for the White House in 2016 that we couldn’t apply the same rules to covering him that were applied to other politicians seeking elective office.

We had to cover him differently, because this was a man who ignored the common rules of the road, and did, and said, anything to gain advantage, including lie, demean, defame and completely step out of the line of respectability to win.

History clearly shows that to have been his behavior during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, during the election campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton, again in his 2020 campaign against Democrat Joe Biden and subsequent loaded charges of the election being stolen, and then finally in the 2024 GOP primaries and general election contests against Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

And through all of that, the news media’s difficult, but necessary job in this country has been to cover Trump honestly, not only reporting what he says, but what he actually means.

A lot of times, he made it too easy for us, bluntly telling us what he means, allowing those of us who are opinion journalists to evaluate what the prognosis is for the nation and world if Trump is given the power to actually follow through.

Doesn’t make sense to just report what he says, and not factually evaluate what the ramifications could be for the average citizen.

But ultimately our job is not to back off, but stay focused and committed to the task at hand, regardless of the negative reaction, possible threats, or loss of popularity. 

Making sure that the people who depend on us are fully, and accurately informed, is what our job is, especially now that Trump has won the presidency a second time, and promises a second term that will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen in American history.

Mass deportations, dramatic changes to health policy, the elimination of vital agencies of the federal government, massive tariffs attached to foreign goods affecting prices on every day goods. Our job remains to stay on the job, because American life is about to change in ways that we never dreamed of.

The news media in this country must also keep a running record of what campaign promises Trump fails to keep, so that citizens understand that everything they may have heard from him or his campaign may not have been as truthful as they believed.

As we prepare for Trump and his administration to officially take over on January 20th, 2025, we in the news media must make note of the fact that some in our profession have already shown themselves not up to the challenge of fulfilling their jobs.

Right before Election Day 2024 ended, Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post and Amazon, reportedly killed an endorsement from the influential newspaper of Democrat Kamala Harris, saying that for the first time in decades, The Post would not be endorsing a presidential candidate because, suddenly, the owner felt it wasn’t the paper’s role.

Word was Bezos was concerned about an economic backlash against his business empire from the powerful forces backing Trump if he allowed the Post’s endorsement of VP Harris to be published.

Other prominent newspapers across the country also withheld their endorsements.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezenski, hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" political talk program, telling their audience recently that after seven years of not talking to Donald Trump because of a personal falling out, the pair will now change direction on their show and try to include him as a guest for dialogue, even though they know that he will use them and their program to lie and mislead the American people.

Joe and Mika admitted to flying down to Trump's Mar-a-largo Florida resort to meet with Trump for 90 minutes and come to som kind of mutual understanding.

The pair were brutally lambasted for bowing down to Trump in a transparent way to hopefully increase their failing ratings. Most observers agree that all they're doing is giving Trump another platform to spread his particular brand of lies and vicious attacks, not engage in thoughtful discussion of public policy.

Reportedly, Morning Joe has been steadily losing viewers ever since Joe and Mika made their ill-fated announcement.

Bottomline is while major media entities in this nation are being intimidated by political forces to cower, a strong news media is needed more than ever to stand strong, stay on the job, and let the chips fall where they may.

No, reporting is not opinion making, and nor should it be. But opinion making should be fact-based, and hard-hitting perspective. Those two together serve as the life’s blood of fully understanding what our public officials are up to and why when they're elected to office.

Ultimately, for those of us in the media, the job has not changed. Now that Trump has returned to the presidency, reporters and opinion writers must be clear, the job may be harder, but we should not be intimidated.

We should do the job honestly, accurately, and deliberately.

We owe that to the people who still trust us, no matter what.