Margaret Sullivan on how Trump coverage still falls short
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.
“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
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.
Related Knowledge Center: Inside the newsroom
As newsrooms struggle with rickety business models and precarious finances — as well as new technologies — they are deploying an array of editorial responses.
The Times and its critics | Washington Post mortem
Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
Democracy and politics | Signalgate | The CBS submission | Voiceless America