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Margaret Sullivan on how Trump coverage still falls short
"A different, more skeptical approach is absolutely necessary."
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This special Saturday edition of PN is made possible by paid subscribers. Become one👇
I’m in DC this weekend for a conference, but as a little Saturday bonus for subscribers, I’m publishing an interview we recently conducted with one of America’s most esteemed media critics — Margaret Sullivan.
Sullivan is a former public editor of the New York Times and media columnist for the Washington Post who these days writes for The Guardian and also on her own Substack, American Crisis. She recently authored a piece headlined “Dear media, stop acting like Trump means what he says” that takes aim at major outlets for not approaching Trump’s utterances with the skepticism they deserve.
Instead of just taking Trump’s statements at face value — she cites this Axios piece about “Trump’s pivot on Minnesota” as an example of overly credulous framing — Sullivan argues outlets should be more bold about foregrounding the fact that nothing he says is on the level.
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“A lot of it comes from wanting to be perceived as neutral and fair,” she told us. “But when you take the truth and the falsehood and report down the middle, you’re actually not doing the job of journalism.”
Sullivan cited Trump’s mobster media shakedowns as a factor that’s putting a chill on hard-hitting coverage.
“This is a long-term campaign against a reality-based press. Thanks to a lot of factors that are going on in the overall media ecosystem, it’s been successful,” she said.
“When he sued ABC News and 60 Minutes and they settle, a kind of self-censorship that sets in, and then there’s extreme caution. Not that caution is bad, but it becomes overkill and winds up in soft-pedaling.”
A full transcript of Sullivan’s conversation with Public Notice contributor Thor Benson, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows. If you’d like to read it but aren’t yet a paid subscriber, please consider supporting our work by becoming one.
Thor Benson...