New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg didn't mince words in his Sunday column yesterday. Non-opinion journalists are opposing Trump in ways that would be, he writes, "by normal standards, untenable." But this is Donald Trump, so normal standards don't apply.
"If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?"
If you go on to read the rest of his column, you'll find that journalist have a huge guilt complex for letting Trump get this far. And they are determined to stop him at all costs.
"...journalism shouldn’t measure itself against any one campaign’s definition of fairness. It is journalism’s job to be true to the readers and viewers, and true to the facts, in a way that will stand up to history’s judgment. To do anything less would be untenable."
"If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?"
If you go on to read the rest of his column, you'll find that journalist have a huge guilt complex for letting Trump get this far. And they are determined to stop him at all costs.
"...journalism shouldn’t measure itself against any one campaign’s definition of fairness. It is journalism’s job to be true to the readers and viewers, and true to the facts, in a way that will stand up to history’s judgment. To do anything less would be untenable."
