The Press Stays Calm
I want
to congratulate the press—or at least the small (mostly NYTimes) portion that I
read—for giving a fair shake to President Trump without criticism or sarcasm.
Maybe that’s what it takes to stay in business, but it is something of an
achievement to remain calm and “objective” in a piece like this “Trump Says He
Has Signed More Bills Than Any President, Ever. He Hasn’t.”* This is a long and
respectful article that shows that the President of the United States—Our president—is ignorant about the
history that he cites, brags about accomplishments that he didn’t accomplish,
and just plain lies.
Why am I
congratulating the press—specifically the NYTimes for producing an article such
as this? Because the authors (Michael D. Shear and Karen Yourish) and their
editors have resisted the temptation, surely great, to be sarcastic,
censorious, hectoring, or in other ways grandstanding. Neither they nor I have
experienced a president about whom such a report could (truthfully) be written.
But
they are right to make their report straight.
Those of us who are appalled by the president we have acquired don’t need
journalists to express any, not to say vehement, feelings in their reporting.
Those others—and there are many, since under prevailing rules, Trump was fairly
elected, would only be annoyed if the likes of the Times were in such a way
implicitly censoring them for having done what they did. That’s what editorials
and “commentaries” are for, not news
reports. I do think, to repeat, that such virtuous journalists should be
given credit for sticking to the facts, in the face of temptations to express
their own opinions.
*ttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-laws-bills.html?hp&action=click&pgtype
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