This Post article is a good exemplar of the challenge facing the free press in reporting in the Age of Trump. It was written by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, Ashley Parker, whom I respect and have no specific beef, but it employs a common but dangerously flawed template. 1/
The problem is the binary framing traditionally applied to “balanced” reporting of political news. In the Age of Trump, there’s a glaring absence of good-faith quote sources of “the other side.” 2/
Trying to cull quotes from the GOP and Team Trump, it’s all “I don’t read his tweets” abdication or pure and bottomless bad faith. The media desperately needs to find some way to abandon the unworkable binary template. 3/
Check out how the reporter tried to balance the quotes in this article. On the one hand, she quotes Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor and authoritarian scholar. No axe to grind, no dog in this hunt. The issue is Trump’s insistence that he’s the only reliable source of truth. 4/
Professor Ben-Ghiat raises interesting, non-partisan-agenda-based points about the relentless promotion of falsehoods as a means to un-democratic political ends around the globe. Then the article casts about for some “balance” and comes up with... 5/
Steve Bannon? (Seriously?) This blurb is pure Bannon fantasy. It’s how *he* envisioned Trump’s agenda. “...for hard working Americans”? Please. “Trump at war with the Antifa anarchists?” JFC. Pure claptrap. It has no business in this piece, certainly not as “balance.” 6/ 
Okay. The bench is a little thin for the pro-authoritarian-endless-stream-of-lies crowd. What else we got for “balance”? Rudy Giuliani? SMH. Giuliani can’t even make it through a TV interview without soiling himself, and hasn’t strung together 4 coherent sentences in months. 7/
Never mind that Giuliani’s schtick is part chaos-by-design, muddy-the-waters stuff, his credibility is in the tank below the tank. Analogizing Trump as akin to *Ronald Reagan* & *Barry Goldwater*?!! ROFL. Next. 8/
Really scraping now, the article turns to... wait for it... a former Trump campaign advisor, who in turn presents lies, distortions and bad-faith manipulations for power as some kind of lifestyle choice: 9/
While it’s true that we live in a time of information cocoons and people can opt to be willfully un- or mis-informed, one cannot “shop for news in any flavor you like.” People can seek objective truth about the world around them or they can choose not to. 10/
Ignorance and knowledge are not “two flavors” of knowledge. Objective fact and deliberate, calculated lies and distortions are not “two flavors” of truth. Presenting them as equal options benefits only the purveyors of propaganda and lies. 11/
In the quest for the holy grail of “balance,” the actual story here is sacrificed. The fact that Trump wants people to believe in his cult-like status as the sole arbiter of truth and that millions believe him IS the story, along with the very serious dangers that entails. 12/
Trying to “balance” things out with some juicy quotes from those who seek to further the lies and propaganda only benefits Team Gaslighting and does nothing to edify. It’s a mistake we see repeated in the media again and again. 13/
It’s tragic, if exasperating, since it’s preventable. Drop the ‘Chuck Todd both-sides-do-it, all-in-the-game’ template. Reporters don’t have to *ignore* disinformation peddlers, just stop giving them equal footing with knowledge of our objective reality. 14/14 <fin>
