So the other day, Trump got hold of a microphone in front of a TV camera, and said some disgusting things about women and sexual assault, about liberals, about judges and the rule of law, about people without wealth. and some other things that are demonstrably not true.
And then for the next 48 hours, all the newspapers and all the TV news programs, and even the front page of dkos, are filled with stories of the outrageous things Trump said (or did). These stories continue until the next outrageous thing Trump says or does.
And the stories about Trump’s long history of criminal behaviors, his cheating on his taxes, the very real possibility that a changing climate will bring about the end of human civilization, his dealings with Russian government agents seeking to weaken and embarrass the USA, are all pushed aside and ignored.
Indeed, most thinking people feel confident that Trump says outrageous things in public specifically with the intent of distracting the public from his crimes and culpability.
And week in and week out, the press, the media, and yes, even the front page writers at dkos, fall into the Trump-trap, fail to write or follow-up on the damning news, and instead provide for Trump exactly the distraction Trump wants.
It is a well known maxim of war that one should not fight a battle on the ground the enemy chooses. And yet, where Trump is concerned, we fight his battles on his chosen turf — small wonder Trump has been able to survive news events that have sunk others. We should stop doing that.
Here’s a suggestion: next time (probably tomorrow) Trump tells outrageous and untrue things into a TV camera, let us report it this way: “Today, Trump tried to distract from his growing legal problems by mocking women, disparaging the rule of law, and re-tweeting a racist slogan.” Or: “The IPCC recently released a scientific report warning of the damages from a changing climate. Trump has not publicly commented on the report for four days now, but did go on Fox News to say things that are provably false about Sec. Clinton.” Or: “As the Mueller investigation announced new indictments, Trump refused to answer reporters’ questions, and sought instead to change the subject by suggesting poor people should forego health insurance.”
This is a tall order, I know. It requires that the people who report the news understand not just the story, but also remember the past news events and the context in which that story is occurring. It requires that the organizations that report the news be more concerned about the long-term quality of their product, and less concerned about their near-term bottom line. And the job will get tougher still as Trump deploys his more aggressive distraction moves, including firing government officials (“I have decided not to fire Rob Rosenstein just yet: I am saving that outrage for a time when I need an overwhelming outrage.”), and/or threats or actual attacks on foreign countries.
The story is not that Trump said or did something childish, or rude, or even false. The story is that Trump is a criminal who has criminally joined with other criminals to criminally defraud and steal from the American public. This is the story we should be covering. And if Trump attacks a women who is accusing Trump (or one of his criminal associates) of a sexual assault, the story should reflect how Trump’s attacks on his accusers fit into a larger pattern of criminality and attempts to deflect from that criminality.
We should stop covering Trump the way Trump wants to be covered. To paraphrase Michelle Obama: when they go low, we continue to point out all the things they hope we will forget because they have gone low.