President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of a white supremacist as chief strategist and senior counselor to the White House, a man who admires Vladimir Lenin (the Communist revolutionary and politician), a man who favors “destroying the state,” and is on record as not liking Jews, was met by the mainstream media as …well, pretty normal news.
USA Today: TRUMP TURNS TO GOP ALLIES
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Names White House Brass
The Washington Post: Priebus, Bannon to be top advisors
Normalizing the appointment of Steve Bannon, the former president of the alt-right website Brietbart, marks a failing by the newspapers as the impact of Trump’s election continues to roil the nation. It’s not normal to have as an advisor to the president a man who says one of his goals is:
… to bring down the entire establishment including the leaders of the Republican Party in Congress.
Keep in mind that the Republican Party in Congress is the party to which the president belongs.
It’s not normal to have a racist as the chief strategist to the president-elect. The national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations noted
that Bannon's appointment adds fuel to the fire of racial and ethnic hatred and division in America.
"The appointment of Stephen Bannon as a top Trump administration strategist sends the disturbing message that anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and White nationalist ideology will be welcome in the White House," (Nihad) Awad added. "We urge President-elect Trump to reconsider this ill-advised appointment if he truly seeks to unite American.”
But, if you’re a newspaper covering the new Trump administration as it forms, normal seems to have taken on a new meaning.