On MSNBC, Angelo Carusone discusses the lessons that the Media need to learn in covering Trump
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From the January 28, 2024, edition of MSNBC's Ayman
AYMAN MOHYELDIN (HOST): That was Ron Desantis and Nikki Haley pushing back on Fox, both for propping up Donald Trump and for sending them a clear message: drop out of the race, and attend the coronation of Trump. So far Desantis has answered that call, but Haley has yet to do so. Now that's Fox, but how will other outlets cover trump's 2024 campaign? And what responsibility do all of us in the media have to avoid the same mistakes that were made in 2016 and beyond. Joining me now is Angelo Carusone, the president of the progressive media watchdog group, Media Matters. Angelo it's great to have you back on the show. Let's start with the million dollar question, which is, how do you cover Trump properly? How do you avoid normalizing him without the same time ignoring the threat, the singular threat that he poses to our democracy?
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS): Yeah, man, that's obviously the real challenge. There's a few lessons here that I think haven't been baked in, or maybe have not been fully learned. One is just some cautions: do not allow 'go along to get along' mentality to seep in, because that can affect coverage now. This idea that something really bad is going to happen. There's a massive attack on the media, from Trump world saying we're going to come get you, if we get reelected and the right-wing has a strong history of working the refs and that shouldn't allow for coverage to get distorted. For example, when Trump starts quoting Nazis, like we did a big study in October that showed all these parallels, with his Nazi comments, and then looked at that coverage. And then coverage of Hillary Clinton's deplorable comment. The coverage of Hillary Clinton saying the word deplorables in a totally appropriate way got 26 more times attention than Donald Trump quoting Nazis right? So what my point is I think there is a a few things, one there's this sort of inoculation of bias, which distorts their coverage. The second is go along to get along. So those two things should be avoided. And I think the most critical thing is to not reinforce the narrative that he's telling about himself. Some of the things that said or reported about Donald Trump are often negative, but they are actually very powerful for his story, because they reinforce his brand. And ultimately, that's his real strength here, is that he is telling and projecting a narrative. So those are the three buckets. And then the flip side of this, the critical piece: don't make it all about Trump. This doesn't mean you ignore him. But if we just look at say some of the economic benefits play out, Donald Trump's coverage of the economy in the news media was significantly better than President Biden's is. Even though President Biden by every measurable indicator has had more economic successes. So I think that's not only a reflection of the internalized attempt to inoculate themselves against cries of bias, but also an example of what not to do. To me, that is -- if they follow those lessons, at least people can make an informed decision.
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Very important points I think for all of us to heed the warning of. I wanted to get your thoughts on something that is not news related, but certainly media related. The return of Jon Stewart to host the Daily Show on Monday, at least until the election in November. Especially after he left in 2015, he was a very influential figure but give me your thoughts on how influential are figures like Jon Stewart, John Oliver, and others in terms of keeping people, younger people informed and spotlighting this threat to democracy that people like Trump and the Republican party at large are posing. Are there other people that you think he could reach as a comedian, satirist, entertainer who otherwise may not be paying attention?
ANGELO CARUSONE: I think that if you just look at the work that he has done, he's done more recently around pushing legislation for the -- sort of the first responders in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. That crossed partisan lines and a lot of his media actually penetrated and influenced not just more mainstream and left leaning media, but actually penetrated conservative media consumption. We track share of voice and during that time period, one of the biggest shifts in the political tides was the fact that it was Jon Stewart's relentless pursuit of just what was actually happening around this legislation, and why it was so important that actually reached conservative audiences which then the lead to political pressure on Republicans. So I use that as a jump point, because I'm not going to overstate the significance and potency of Jon Stewart here, but it is as you noted in your question, there are very few people that have real truth telling capacity these days, and trust and believability and He's one of those figures. And on top of it he has courage and a consistent ability to constantly put truth to power. So is it gonna be a game-changer? No. Is it significant in a moment where we are dealing with deepfakes, potential foreign interference, a massive avalanche of disinformation? I don't think, though, it will be the people watching his show live there will be the difference maker. As you know, it will be like John Oliver. It'll be the clips in segments that will really penetrate and get saturation online.