Too damned bad.
Being all-in for Hillary is now a problem for a newspaper that wants to be a power in a nation where 62,904,682 voted for Trump -- where Trump carried thirty states. But the problem cannot be fixed by hiring me or anyone else as a token Trumpkin.
We saw what happened when the paper hired Kathleen Parker and Jennifer Rubin. They became the go-to conservatives to bash other conservatives for daring to act conservative.
The Washington Post and every other newspaper in the country is in trouble because they DEMANDED readers vote for Hillary, and readers in thirty states flipped them the bird. The credibility of Trump-bashing newspapers is gone for at least a generation.
These newspapers need to hire openly Trumpkin reporters because that is where your Trumpkin columnists emerge. Most newspaper columnists begin by covering fires. When they fail to do that properly, they write feature stories. When they screw up there, they are given columns.
But newsrooms are the most conformist place on Earth. I am sure on Election Night the people on the copy desks across America cheered when they thought Her Royal Clintonness would rule. Then about 9:30 p.m. Eastern, the newsrooms became quiet and by 10 p.m., they were some of the saddest places on Earth.
Was there any reporter, photographer, editor, or techie at the Washington Post who openly cheered Trump's victory?
Of course not.
You cannot show your politics in the newsroom unless it is for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or any other Democrat on the approved list.
The people covering Hillary were all pro-Hillary. So were those covering Trump. See? Equal coverage.
Now that the election is over, the newspapers are looking for pro-Trump columnists.
From the Washington Post:
“We struggled to find voices that could advocate for Donald Trump’s ideas,” said James Bennet, the New York Times’ editorial-page editor. “It was really unusual. It didn’t help that the conservative intelligentsia lined up against him.” But Bennet says Trump’s campaign contributed to the imbalance: “He didn’t have the people around him who were prepared to put together his arguments” for publication.
Lynn Hicks, the Des Moines Register’s opinion editor, found a parallel at his newspaper, the largest in the swing state that wound up going for Trump. “Given that almost all of our Republican leadership in Iowa supported Trump, I kept waiting for [supportive op-ed] pieces to arrive,” Hicks said. “I’m still waiting.”Those free op-ed columns did not come because Republicans in Iowa do not need the Des Moines Register.
This is the newspaper that DEMANDED Trump drop out a month after he entered the race. What a loathsome editorial and I am so glad that newspaper now reaps what it sowed.
From the Washington Post:
USA Today may have been the only large newspaper to buck the general trend. It published Trump-supportive columns from law professor and Instapundit founder Glenn Reynolds and regular contributor James Robbins. It also went right to the source: It persuaded Trump; his running mate, Mike Pence; and Trump surrogate Rudolph W. Giuliani to write guest columns. As the new administration takes shape, editorial page editor Bill Sternberg said the paper is looking for more contributions from those “who agree with Trump on specific issues.”That was not by happenstance. USA Today has done its editorial page right over the years, and Professor Reynolds has been one of its best finds.
I am not calling for a boycott by Trumpkin columnists. Do what you want. But a token will not salvage anyone's reputation.
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Have a little fun. Read "Trump the Press," in which I skewer media experts who wrongly predicted Trump would lose the Republican nomination. "Trump the Press" is available as a paperback, and on Kindle.
For an autographed copy, email me at DonSurber@GMail.com