As reported in the Washington Post apple.news/… the Cleveland Plain Dealer has decided to “ignore inaccurate statements” made by Josh Moore. He has adopted the standard M.O. of trolls by making incendiary statements which used to guarantee media coverage.
“[Quinn’s]decision is a marked departure from conventional journalistic wisdom that politicians’ statements inherently deserve coverage and that every story has at least two sides. Newsrooms across the country have increasingly reevaluated that approach because of President Donald Trump’s more than 30,000 false or misleading claims, many of which dominated the news cycle and helped him amass a following.”
As I’ve advocated in other postings, it’s simple for a reporter to make a factual statement like “Politician <X> made a series of false claims on subject <Y> today.” Or even better kick in standard troll delay: “This week, Politician <X> struggling for relevancy, continued to make false claims in an effort to gain attention and coverage.” Or even better, don’t repeat them at all.
Speaking truth to power, the role of press is not repeating statements, but to identify operating truth, that the person continually lies. Once they begin repeating refuted claims, their press coverage should begin the process of ignoring their statements.
One day I’ll understand why that’s not standard procedure now, and why it wasn’t applied to Former Guy long before the first election began.