Quotes from today’s Morning Edition hosts when introducing the story:
www.npr.org/...
“...President Trump was in campaign-mode last night.”
“He sure was, and in a big way. The president was in Arizona where he held a campaign rally in front of thousands of supporters at the Phoenix Convention Center.”
“What did it feel like to be inside the rally, with this huge crowd supporting the president?”
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Well, at least the reporter at the convention center relayed that it was about half-capacity, which still seems damn generous based on the photos.
But that’s not the real point. The point is that NPR introduced the story with a demonstrably inaccurate portrayal of the event. That is just shoddy journalism, or worse.
Then again, NPR has been doing a great job lately of seeking out and interviewing — almost exclusively — Trump’s unwavering “base” supporters, plus Republicans at all political levels and conservative/right-wing media people.
But when it comes to the majority of Americans who oppose Trump and did not vote for him? And Democratic lawmakers? It’s like they don’t exist. Based on my listening habits, my (admittedly) unscientific estimate is that as of late, this sort of NPR coverage has been running about 85 to 15 in the amount of time devoted to Trump supporters/Republicans.
This is the type of insidious media coverage that implies there is negligible opposition to Trump (or at least no opposition that is worth reporting), when in fact the opposite is true.
NPR did its listeners a disservice this morning.