The hush money trial for Donald Trump is now underway in New York (you can read more about that one here), and the press is giving it practically non-stop coverage. John Stewart did a pretty good job of calling them out for the excessive attention they are giving to the trial in Monday’s episode of The Daily Show (see video below), and the fact is that they are diving deep into the minutiae of this case (to the point of debating whether the former president passed gas in court). And in so doing, the press is playing right into Trump’s hands and giving him the attention he craves.
Leading up to the 2016 election, the media provided non-stop coverage of his antics, delivering plenty of free publicity and possibly helping him to win the election. This continued into his first term as the press gave reality show-type coverage to his actions and kept him constantly in the headlines. There seemed to be a brief period after Trump left office when the press was not fawning over him as much, but with the run-up to the 2024 election and all of the current court cases, we are once again subject to 24-hour-Trump-reporting.
And the worst part about this is that the press does not call out his lies enough. Each day he will get time in front of the cameras to rant about witch hunts and being persecuted and how Biden and the Democrats are bringing these legal actions against him, but all of that is bluster and lies (more on that here). Constant coverage of this just helps Trump to further his distortion of the facts and convince people that he is the victim. But the truth is that Trump has been charged by the authorities (none of which include Biden or his close associates), and he is facing his day in court. If he truly believed in “Law and Order” as he claimed, then he would put his faith in the system and allow it to determine the appropriate outcome.
But Trump wants to play the victim campaign on this, and the press is doing everything it can to help. Even if many of the media outlets are not always portraying him in a good light, they are given him a podium to stand on and allowing him to get his message out to many more people than he could on his own. And if this helps Trump get back in power, it will go badly for many in the press as he brings his promised retribution.
Coverage of the trials is acceptable, and people do want to know the outcome. But this non-stop reporting, especially when he is allowed to spew lies with little in the way of pushback, is dangerous and ultimately helps only Trump. We need to remain diligent and not get lured into the reality show the press is creating to in order to generate ratings as well as clicks to their websites. Staying up with the developments in this and other cases is sensible, but we should not fall into the trap of the obsessive coverage that ultimately only furthers Trump’s misguided cause.