News media call out Trump’s dangerous words

It was supposed to simply be a speech honoring veterans, since it was Veterans Day. But, of course, when it comes to former President Donald Trump, nothing is ever simple. Or without controversy.

His speech turned to his opponents, and then to himself and the presidency. He told the crowd in New Hampshire, “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections. They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.”

But this time, instead of simply restating what Trump said, news organizations called out just how disturbing Trump’s words were.

Appearing on “CNN This Morning,” former CNN host Brian Stelter said, “That’s a horrifying clip. That’s a fascist clip. … That is shocking and the kind of thing we can never get numb to.”

The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky wrote, “This is straight-up Nazi talk, in a way he’s never done quite before. To announce that the real enemy is domestic and then to speak of that enemy in subhuman terms is Fascism 101. Especially that particular word.”

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” historian Jon Meacham said, “To call your opponent ‘vermin,’ to dehumanize them, is to not only open the door but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes.”

But the headline that drew the most attention came from The Washington Post: “Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini.”

Think about that. The Washington Post, one of the biggest and most influential news organizations in the world, located in our nation’s capital, called out Trump for sounding like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Trump’s use of the word “vermin” was not an off-the-cuff remark during a speech. He used it again in a post on his Truth Social.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University, told the Post’s Marianne LeVine in an email that “calling people ‘vermin’ was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.”

Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement, “On a weekend when most Americans were honoring our nation’s heroes, Donald Trump parroted the autocratic language of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini — two dictators many U.S. veterans gave their lives fighting, in order to defeat exactly the kind of un-American ideas Trump now champions.”

It’s one thing for the Biden campaign to rail against Trump’s comments, but it’s another for the media to call out Trump for such troubling rhetoric.

In a recent column for the Guardian US, veteran media journalist Margaret Sullivan implored the press to “Use direct language, not couched in scaredy-cat false equivalence, about the dangers of a second Trump presidency.”

Pointing out that Trump is using the language of dictators, sounding like Hitler, is the responsible step.

And Trump’s stunning speech was not a first. Axios’ Sara Fischer writes, “Trump’s increasingly violent rhetoric — calling for a U.S. military leader to be executed, mocking a near-fatal assault on a congressional spouse, urging police to shoot potential shoplifters — has become a staple of his brand as he faces the threat of conviction in four different criminal cases.”

MSNBC’s Steve Benen wrote, “It’s important to emphasize that Trump’s rhetorical excesses are not new. To know anything about the Republican is to know that he, on a nearly daily basis, finds new and needlessly provocative ways to shock, offend, insult, and degrade. It’s a core element of his personality, and the more people are outraged by what he says, the more the former president seems to revel in their disgust.”

Some suggest we shouldn’t overreact to everything Trump says, but this particular speech was different. This shouldn’t be ignored.

Benen wrote, “It’s an unusual word choice for the Republican, but as Trump removes all subtlety from his authoritarian vision, it’s now a new normal for the GOP’s most powerful figure. As upsetting as the resulting image is, it’s best not to look away.”

The good news is that some of the press did not look away this time. In fact, it shined a light on it.

Meanwhile, former CNN White House correspondent John Harwood tweeted Monday that the media needs to do a better job of reporting on Joe Biden’s accomplishments. He wrote:

Biden needs expert political guidance. voters are unhappy. Trump could win despite his flagrant criminality and deranged mental state

journalists need to better convey 2 realities:

–the US economy is doing well, not poorly
–Biden at 80 is handling the job effectively right now

MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary under Joe Biden, has been surprisingly good on TV. Well, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. She did have TV experience before her stint as Biden’s press secretary, and her daily press briefings were kind of like live television.

The point, however, is that she has been even better than expected hosting her own Sunday program on MSNBC. Yes, she certainly has a liberal slant and doesn’t try to hide it. But she brings facts to her arguments and is always poised in her compliments/criticisms.

On Sunday, Psaki admitted that her former boss, Biden, “isn’t perfect,” but she also reminded viewers about the possible alternative, which is Donald Trump.

Psaki said, “If elected to a second term, Donald Trump would prosecute anyone he deems an enemy, unleashed troops on protesters and essentially unravel the rule of law as we know it. And this time, he plans to line his administration with people who will actually help him do it. Joe Biden is three years older and occasionally trips over things. Look, there’s a lot to be concerned about right now when it comes to a second Trump term. The speeches are getting much more disturbing and much more unhinged, and we should all hear it that way. It’s also important to talk about all of this and important to call it out. But there is nothing more important than digging into his actual plans. The faintest of silver linings here is that Trump is warning us in his own voice with a microphone on and a camera rolling. By the way, he’s telling us exactly what he plans to do. We all just need to listen.”

One of Psaki’s guests on Sunday was Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who told Psaki, “So what would a second (Trump) term look like? It would look a lot like Vladimir Putin in Russia. It would look a lot like Viktor Orbán in Hungary — illiberal democracy, meaning democracy without rights, or liberties, or respect for the due process, the system, the rule of law.”

In case you missed it, in my Monday newsletter, I had a Q&A with veteran media journalist and former CNN host Brian Stelter about his new book: “Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy,” which comes out today.

On Monday, Stelter went back to his old stomping grounds, CNN, to talk about his book. He told “CNN This Morning” co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly that he’s still hopeful despite the dangerous things Trump says that get echoed and amplified by conservative outlets.

“Absolutely,” Stelter said, “because I think most people want to know what’s real and true in the world. That’s why the so-called ‘network of lies’ — this disinformation machine that includes parts of Fox News but also the Steven Bannons of the world, right-wing podcasts, all that machinery that’s trying to reelect Donald Trump — is important. It’s got to be reckoned with. It’s got to be scrutinized. It deserves all that scrutiny. But most people still want to actually know what is real and true in the world. We have to be louder than the liars in this environment.”

The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona reports that Jason Donner, a former reporter for Fox News, is suing the network for retaliation and discrimination. He claims he was fired because he opposed Fox’s “false coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection.”

Donner started at Fox News in 2010 and was a Capitol Hill reporter and producer when he was fired in 2022. In a suit filed in September, he accuses Fox News of violating the D.C. Human Rights Act, including three counts of discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination. He says in his suit that “he did not share many of the views expressed by Fox News’ Opinion page, or the evening hour television commentators.” The suit claims, “it did not impact his ability to report on Capitol Hill news until the wake of the 2020 election.”

Baragona has lots more details about the suit, including a copy of the suit itself, so check out his story.

For this item, I turn it over to Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds.

The Pew Research Center published its annual report of newspaper facts last week. As you would expect from the continuing waves of layoffs and the financial reports of companies like Gannett and Lee, newspapers are hurting. Weekday paid circulation for 2022 — print and digital — was down 8% daily and 10% Sunday in just one year. For print alone, the figures were 13% daily and 16% Sunday.

In advertising, Pew estimates that revenue dipped 5% to just below $10 billion. A brighter spot was circulation revenue, holding even at $11.6 billion. Higher subscription prices for print offset a good deal of the loss of volume and The New York Times’ big success with paid digital subscriptions drives a relatively good circulation revenue result overall. Newspapers remained a $20 billion-plus industry in 2022. However, that is about a third of peak revenues in 2005 and 2006.

Beyonce at the 65th annual Grammy Awards in February. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Last week, Gannett announced it had hired a reporter for its newly created Taylor Swift beat. The announcement didn’t go over well in some places, including this newsletter. One problem was Gannett hiring a man to write about a woman who writes so much about the female experience. And, two, the reporter was a self-admitted “Swiftie” — that is to say, a huge Swift fan. Could he be fair and balanced about Swift and be willing to write stories that might not portray her in the best light?

Then on Monday, Gannett named its next big hire — a reporter to cover Beyonce. At first glance, this hire seems to be going much better.

Caché McClay, the new hire, told Rolling Stone’s Larisha Paul, “I wouldn’t say I’m a part of the BeyHive, but I definitely speak the language.” She then added, “I do want to make clear I’m a Beyonce stan, but my point in saying that was mainly to maintain my integrity as a journalist. That’s what this role is — to report on Beyonce, but making sure that I am unbiased with certain issues or certain things.”

That’s more like it.

McClay does have a journalism background. According to The Tennessean’s Sandy Mazza, McClay graduated from Howard University in 2017 and has worked as a writer and digital producer at Hearst Television, NBC News and BBC News. She was most recently at TMZ in Los Angeles, where she covered entertainment news.

McClay told Paul, “As a reporter, the job is to highlight and unpack what’s going on. I am a fan, but also the point of this job is not to just appease a fan base.”

Mazza wrote, “The demanding role requires close coverage of Beyonce’s complex business and entertainment empire, including the upcoming film documenting her $580 million-grossing Renaissance World Tour and a new perfume line, among other products.”

Tennessean news director Ben Goad told Paul, “We’re building a beat from scratch that has never existed before, and (McClay) will have a leading role in helping us shape what that is. We will be working with her and assigning stories and helping her decide what avenues to go down. But ultimately, we want our reporters to own their beat and be telling us what the next story is.”

• The Associated Press’ David Bauder with “For news organizations, the flood of Gaza war video is proving both illuminating and troubling.”
• For NBC News, Mo Abbas with “Palestinian journalists in Israel say they face intimidation and harassment.”
• Axios’ Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer with “Layoffs hit Recurrent Ventures following CEO shakeup.”
• For Nieman Lab, Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis with “‘Arguments on a daily basis’: How couples who disagree politically navigate news.”
• My Poynter colleague, Annie Aguiar, with “The Post, navigating buyouts, ‘has a very important role to play’ says retired editor Martin Baron.”
• Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy with “ESPN’s Financial Success Raises Questions About Cost-Cutting and Layoffs.”
• Also, this from McCarthy: Raina Kelley is leaving her job as the top editor at ESPN’s Andscape, the site devoted to the intersection of Black culture and sports. McCarthy reports Kelley is leaving for another company, although the name of the company wasn’t revealed.
• And speaking of ESPN, legendary college basketball announcer Dick Vitale was hoping to return soon following treatments for vocal cord cancer, but his return has been put on hold. In a statement through ESPN, Vitale said, “While I’m disappointed with the latest developments, I remain hopeful. The cancer is gone, which is amazing news, yet the impact of the treatments has taken its toll on my voice and requires more healing.” This will be Vitale’s 45th season calling games for ESPN.

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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