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NY Times

Can the Media Recover From This Election?

Nov 9, 2016  •  Post A Comment

A discussion of how the media handled the presidential election, and what happens now that the election is over, appears in The New York Times, with chief television critic James Poniewozik and media columnist Jim Rutenberg breaking things down.

Poniewozik writes: “The press covered Hillary Clinton like the next president of the United States. The press covered Donald Trump like a future trivia question (and a ratings cash cow).”

Adds Rutenberg: “If you think about it, she received coverage befitting a traditional politician running for president; he received coverage of a billionaire reality-television star who turned politics into performance art and sparked a powerful movement in the process.”

Poniewozik notes: “And in the general election, it affected expectations. NBC’s September ‘commander-in-chief forum’ with Matt Lauer [of ‘Today’] was a low point. Mrs. Clinton got an appropriately tough vetting. Mr. Lauer told Mr. Trump ‘nobody would expect you’ to have studied up on foreign policy before running. (Nobody? Do they cover that at orientation?)”

And Rutenberg observes: “The new twist was that we had an asymmetry no working journalist had ever seen. Donald J. Trump lied more than his opponent did. It meant that the press was seen calling him out for falsehoods more than it was seen calling out Hillary Clinton, who fibbed less (but did aplenty). That created the impression of imbalance. But so much of it was reflecting what the reporting found, objectively.”

Click on the link near the top of this story to go to The New York Times to read the full discussion.

7 Comments

  1. Oh please. The media legitimized his campaign by covering him more than any other Republican hopeful. Don’t try to make yourselves feel better by assuming a discrediting stance after the fact.

  2. But most were in the tank for Team Hillary.

    People are no longer as “dumb” as believed in that people know or sense when they are being used and/or manipulated. Pandered to.

  3. The American people aren’t stupid. The elite media at the Network level (not local TV) was SO in the bag for Hillary I think it just turned a lot of people off. We had elites at the network level practically campaigning for Clinton. Heck, so called political commentators on CNN who were at one time 2nd in command at the DNC and later at the head of the DNC (I’m talking about YOU Donna Brazile…little Miss Persecuted) were actually feeding Clinton debate questions ahead of time !! The elite network media strayed so far off the path of reportage into advocacy for a particular candidate that regular Americans just said “ENOUGH” !! The above crap by the NYT is further evidence that they just don’t get it and are probably doomed to repeat their mistakes in the future.

  4. Hillary lied less? Is this a joke? The cause of Benghazi, her email scandal, her proclamation that she only used one device, her failure to disclose her monetary gain from Wall St. and her quid pro quo with the Clinton Foundation donors? She was and is the establishment, which is why, at first, the market tanked. The media simply can’t see the forest for the trees and are exemplifying the result of the indoctrination received in US upper education. The elitism being bandied about by people who see themselves as fair and compassionate is hypocrisy at it’s height.

  5. Naydi, if I understand your comments intent, it defies logic and shows a bias that is the beginnings of fascism. Did you honestly expect the media not to cover Trump at all because he offended you? Who are you to decide what is or isn’t legitimate?

  6. Rob S – you nailed it! Thank you for your spot on comments. Mainstream media dug its own hole and then started pulling the dirt in on top of themselves! They colluded with the Democrat Party (thanks for the info WikiLeaks), suppressed real news about Clinton scandals and invented scandals or amplified any negative they could dig up regarding President Elect Trump! If consumers stopped buying the goods advertised by bias media outlets we might see media go back to NEWS reporting rather than the entertainment and Democrat activists they now are.

  7. All this handwringing. What a joke !! For all of the media…TV, Radio, print, on-line, this election cycle began as another: ” Ho-hum, let’s see how we’ll cover this without losing too much money.” Then, Trump jumped in and…”FANTASTIC…This is better than WWF !!” And, driven by the idea of merchandising, instead of journalism, it was off to the races. Trump got more than a billion dollars in free air (and other coverage) time because everyone was waiting to see “what will he say next ? ” Clinton..because she was a Clinton..got plenty, and Sanders..because he was the “Crazy Socialist”, was the 3rd part of this Marketing Triangle. The other Republicans got a fair amount of coverage because they were also “radical fringe” and all trying to kill each other (very un-Republican). The only “media loser” was Martin O’Malley, a “normal” moderate Democrat who was almost totally ignored because he was “normal.” This year was the “Selling of the President” (with apologies to Joe McGinnis), on steroids. The result..EVERY cable network repiorted double digit increases in sales and profits. The bosses knew exactly what they were doing. The future of political coverage…hope for controversy and maybe even fist fights between candidates. And don’t worry about issues or informing the public.
    As for all the Area 51 idiots who still claim the “media” was all for Clinton, in addition to all the free Trump time, how about Talkradio, which for 24/7 on thousands of radio stations nationwide (both syndicated AND local Talent) campaigned relentlessly for Republicans and Trump and spent the rest of their time attacking Clinton and President Obama.

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