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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMemo to Media: Don't Screw up the Impeachment Hearings
Memo to Media: Don't Screw up the Impeachment Hearings
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/87414
Four months after the Beltway press badly failed in its coverage of special counsel Robert Mueller's congressional testimony on the Russia scandal, the D.C. press corps has a chance at redemption this week with the first public impeachment hearings of Donald Trump. Hopefully, newsrooms will be up to the important task at hand.
"The stakes dont get much higher when it comes to fulfilling [journalists] core mission: informing citizens of what they really need to know," wrote Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan. Agreed. And here are simple instructions for the impeachment hearings coverage: Don't Both Sides it with lots of phony false equivalencies. Dont treat it as theater. Don't obsess over optics. And don't pretend Republicans making wild, hollow, conspiratorial claims in defense of Trump are serious people.
The committee room in the Longworth House Office Building on Wednesday will host the first hearing. There, three diplomats will recount what they know about Trump's dealings with Ukraine, and how that government had to agree to investigate completely bogus allegations of corruption against Joe Biden's son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukraine gas company, in order for Ukraine to receive nearly $400 million in U.S. aid.
Journalists are already keenly aware that there's mountainous evidence, mostly coming from officials who worked in the Trump administration, that an attempted bribery of Ukraine took place. They also know that Republicans have been utterly incoherent with the various Trump defenses they have tried to float, including the claim that the White House is too inept to pull off an international bribery scheme. So it's imperative that news reports do not pretend the hearings revolve around a Both Sides claim, or that it's just not possible to tell which side is dealing with established facts and which side is basically making stuff up.
The press needs to redeem itself with the hearings this week because the way journalists covered Mueller's day of hearings in July was largely a disgrace, as the press gleefully echoed GOP spin about what a supposed bust the event was. Within hours of the two Mueller hearings ending that day, journalists followed Trump's lead and announced that the day's events had been a "flop," and that he had emerged the clear winner.
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FakeNoose
(32,823 posts)The fact that it's NOT a slam-dunk tells us everything about beltway politics and beltway media coverage.
Ohiogal
(32,118 posts)This is one of my biggest fears, that the msm will present this with way too much both siderism and partisan witch hunt claims.
NoMoreRepugs
(9,480 posts)and conspiracy theories from the WingNut Right to present "both sides."
katmondoo
(6,457 posts)Brian Williams is not my favorite host, but I do like Nicole Wallace. C Span will prevent any frustrations with the hosts of MSNBC
bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)had Rick Santorum on, pushing the idea that Trump's interest in corruption didn't have to do with the Bidens. Instead, it had to do with Ukraine's alleged interference in the 2016 election, the theory of which is completely dredged up from the RW fever swamps, and he wasn't called out on it.
So I'm not holding out any hopes that the media will be any better this time around.
dalton99a
(81,636 posts)Shit, they are already making this into a Trump v. Schiff wrestling match
RAB910
(3,529 posts)For weeks I have been hearing ONLY what Trump and his Republican supporters think about the impeachment proceedings. They have not aired any of the comments made by Democrats or Republicans who don't support Trump
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,446 posts)Unfortunately, we will need to watch and hold them accountable and call them out when they misstep.