Only a dork who comments on "Meet The Press," wouldn't immediately raise his hands up and tune out when Mr. Todd introduced this week's program as a special examination of how the press should cover the news in the Age of Trump (capitalized because now it's an actual thing). Not exactly a ratings winner on New Year's Day and if Mr. Todd is in the studio by himself on what really isn't a slow news day given what happened in Instanbul last night (not mentioned), then just given everyone the day off.
Mr. Todd has focused on this very topic many times leading up to this point and it seems that he just doesn't know, asking as many people on-air as he can in an attempt to find out or passive aggressively trying to get everyone on the same page. The latter, I admit, is pretty dismissive, but more dismissively, one could say, "You what Mr. Todd - Media - get your act together and get over yourselves." But I wouldn't say that.
Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel said that journalists have to keep doing their jobs. In its simplicity, it's still the most insightful. He also pointed out that when you cite the specific press source, people take it more seriously. I think that Mr. Todd conflates what he does as a television political reporter with the established print media too much because they really are different animals, as it were. Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker, and the Executive Editor of The New York Times, Dean Baquet, showed complete faith in the journalistic mission. There is an obligation to the local community to disseminate information about the more practical matters in life - school and road closings, etc. - so there is that base-level trust. For political media, digitally and on-air, the audience is making values judgements. That local level of trust is one reason that makes the press the most likely of institutions to have the ability to regain public trust.
The other reason, and here is where the networks prove their profound relevance as well, is access to confidential sources with the government or administration.
Anyone who works for a government institution, to some degree still believes in the notion of the institution, no matter how ever 'seized upon' you think said institution is. There is also the believe in like institutions, a predisposition of trust to present the truth. People like that don't just go to anyone who will listen, not how it works. And when the stark reality of tragic events - a mass shooting or hurricane/flood - slap an administration in the face there's no shading the actions taken and how the American people react to to those actions.
Did the press completely screw up the coverage of the election and the national mood? Totally. Did they give Donald Trump a free pass on a lot of things - maybe, maybe not - but he definitely duped them all, on any given day.
If I had my two cents, I'd say to cut quickly through the bullsh*t, and stick aggressively to the substance. As noted on today's program, the press needs to find out more about Mr. Trump's businesses, no one even knows all of what he owns exactly. And more ominously, who or what government he's indebted to.
Panel: No panel, really.
A couple more things...
I want to take this opportunity on the very first day of the year to thank you for reading the column. We are, in fact, optimistic for the coming year of 2017 and I wish you all good health and fortune.
With the above said, I'm taking a sabbatical from writing the column for a couple of reasons. One, it has been a crazy and tiring election year and everyone needs a break to recharge. Plus there's still a lot of unsettled business to attend to: an inauguration, cabinet hearings, the first legislative priority out of the gate. I thought I'd wait until all the smoke clears to really have any inclination of how the future will come into focus. Plus, there's some other writing I'd like to focus on, the time for which is long overdue. How long a sabbatical exactly? Not sure, honestly.
In the meantime, I'll be active on twitter: @MTPOpinion
Thanks again.
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