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In order for America to forcefully fight the unfolding terror wave hitting this country, it's time for the press to talk about radicalized, homegrown right-wing sleeper cells in the U.S. It's also past time for the media to accurately label Trump as a racist, and to shine a spotlight on the obvious role his rhetoric is playing in unleashing the recent gun violence.
The press needs to get past its timid, self-imposed guidelines that say calling Trump "racist" is somehow partisan or unprofessional. He currently stands at the fulcrum of a hate movement as he constantly spouts divisive rhetoric, likening blacks to rodents and immigrants to violent trespassers—all while the body count grows.
Let's be perfectly clear about what's happening in America: We've gone from a nation afflicted with gun rampages, to a nation that's becoming specifically afflicted with white nationalist gun rampages. Somehow our mindless mass shooting epidemic just got worse, because now it's often wrapped in the deadly cloak of domestic terrorism. Yet much of the press remains wedded to its previous, 9/11-era approach to terrorism coverage, where jihadists essentially defined terrorism in this country. The deadly 9/11 attack was 18 years ago. The surging terror threats facing this country have completely changed. So, too, should the press coverage—and that should start with Trump and the danger he poses with his openly racist rhetoric.
But journalists too often look away, insisting they can't tell where Trump stands on the battle against violent racists, and reporters ignore the fact that Trump has been completely clear about his allegiance. Again and again, Trump tells us who he is, and journalists pretend they can’t quite figure him out. "Members of the press, what the fuck?" asked an exasperated Beto O'Rourke in the wake of the El Paso massacre. "It's these questions you know the answers to. I mean, connect the dots about what [Trump's] been doing in this country. He's promoting racism."
This is the core of who Trump is. It's the core of what Tucker Carlson and so many Fox News hosts have become under the umbrella of "conservative media." It's ugly, tribal, and unapologetic racism that is absolutely fueling parts of the conservative movement in America today, to the point where there is now a violent, active wing waging war against this country. And it scares the press. It scares the press because journalists don't want to be put in the position of speaking truth to power in terms of labeling Trump a menace to this country.
It’s disturbing, dangerous, and at times surreal that the president of the United States would act in such a way that produces so much harm for the country he's sworn to protect. It's unparalleled in American history, just like it's disturbing and dangerous that Trump doesn't want to protect U.S. elections from foreign interference in 2020. Yet that's all the more reason the press needs to abandon the old tools, have the courage to be aggressively accurate, and not let Trump's bullying keep journalists from properly informing the public about the stunning developments unfolding in front of our eyes.
Today, there's a direct connection between the press (led by the New York Times ) endlessly fawning over Trump's far-right supporters, the ones who wallow in his racist attacks, and depicting them as nothing more than forgotten, hardworking Americans. Between the refusal to call Trump a racist when he acts that way and the refusal to now steadfastly explain that he's likely a driving force in the explosion of white nationalist violence in America, the press has largely failed.
Last week, I suggested Trump's reelection strategy is to basically spark a rhetorical race war. The question now is if the war has already moved beyond being rhetorical. The bloody, racist rampage that unfolded in El Paso over the weekend, just minutes from the Mexico border, was sparked by a white gunman, whose manifesto explicitly cited Trump's "invasion" rhetoric about migrants as his motivation to kill as many brown-skinned people as possible, as he emptied his AK-47 inside a shell-shocked Walmart. The El Paso shooter is unquestionably a terrorist who represents a new generation of sleeper cells in that country: radical gunmen who worship an ideology of hate. It's an ideology that's often endorsed by the White House and the larger Republican Party.
The Texas rampage is just the latest in a deadly succession of race-hating, white nationalist white men launching mass murders. "The [Trump] rhetoric is absolutely resonating and connecting with white supremacist and white nationalist groups, who are over the moon to hear him use such language," stresses researcher Robert McKenzie. Yet too many journalists shy away from making that crucial point.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal's front-page story on the urgent threat posed by white nationalists barely mentioned Trump's racist rhetoric, and when it did it was mentioned only in the context that Democrats were faulting Trump's speech for stoking violence. Remember, these are often the same journalists who (falsely) label Trump a "populist" based on his rhetoric. Yet they refuse to label him a "racist" based on rhetoric about sending congresswomen of color "back" to where they came from.
Indeed, when Trump first tweeted out his clearly racist taunts against the Democratic congresswomen, the Times didn't label them as such. Instead, the paper hid behind Democrats, reporting that they thought the attacks were racist. And that was the media norm at the time. "Democrats immediately denounced the comments as racist," the Journal noted. And from USA Today: "President Donald Trump's opponents accused him of xenophobia and racism on Sunday."
Racism isn't a Both Sides issue, where journalists type up allegations from Democrats and Republicans, pretend they can't tell who's right, and leave it for news consumers to decide. Calling out racism is a moral imperative and by refusing to hold Trump accountable, the press is failing that task.
Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.
This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.
