I've been following the coverage of Trump in @nytimes & @washingtonpost since the 2016 campaign. While the reporting is almost always excellent, what strikes me is how consistently they bend over backwards to frame stories about him, even critical ones, in a favorable light. /1
So let's specify some ways that Trump coverage has failed. This thread is not meant to be definitive; there are other failings over coverage as well, many of which I have pointed out. /2
One very common form of misleading coverage in the guise of objectivity takes the "Trump says [some bs]; experts beg to differ" form, with which we've all become familiar. I have flagged dozens of these over the last three years. This may be the worst./3
Another common error is to ascribe to Trump humanizing characteristics that he plainly seems to lack. In this thread, I showed how the @washingtonpost gifted him with a "sense of humor" and claimed that he "tells it like it is." /4
A 3rd common failing is the attribution of latent left-wing populist sentiments to Trump. Nothing will ever top this risible 2016 article that says Trump was "borrowing from Bernie Sanders' playbook." My blood pressure goes up every time I reread it./5
A fourth failing is to separate Trumpism from broader trends in the Republican Party by, for example, misleadingly describing the GOP as having cared about the debt and deficit until Trump came along. /6
Most often, however, the failings are subtle but just as damaging. For example, this story, like so many others, buries the lede and turns Trump's incompetence into a "strategy."/7
Here's one of many pieces that spin Trump's chaotic actions into a redeeming story, in this case "the wartime president" narrative./8
Until Trump suggested that people inject disinfectant ending his run as reality tv host, the coverage of his "briefings" was framed almost entirely around Trump's melodrama (who is "feuding" with), not the news (very little of which was ever made). /9
So often Trump's targeting of opponents has been framed in terms of "feuds." /10
Here's another example of elevating Trump into COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF making TOUGH CHOICES, who is "torn over re-opening the economy." This is conjuring a "president" to fit a narrative, not describing Trump as he is. /11
The cumulative result, I think, is not balance or objectivity in reporting on Trump (as I'm sure is intended) but unbalanced and sometimes even inaccurate coverage. /12
Let me conclude with a link to a thread that shows the dangers of taking Trump's viewpoint (real or ascribed) as a way to frame stories. In this case, there is discussion about whether or not Governors "appreciate" of Trump. That is not news./13
