March 29, 2024

Defending Donald

When a phone rings in a newsroom there are countless reasons why. A source with a news tip, a mourning family member inquiring about an obituary, someone asking for the date of a community event, a question about the opinion page or a police blotter participant demanding to know “where exactly we get that information” (public records from law enforcement). And then there’s the reader with a political grievance.

As I was fielding calls as the news editor at The Messenger in Fort Dodge, a larger newspaper that ran plenty of national news, I would get regular calls referencing President George W. Bush. Why on earth were we running his photo so often? Some days those calls would be followed by the opposite inquiry. Why on earth were we not running his photo more often?

When I became editor of the Times-Republican in Marshalltown, I wasn’t surprised to hear the same questions about President Barack Obama. What’s with all of the photos and coverage?

While longing for my days of covering city hall and school board, kind of, I would try to keep the answer simple. We can’t avoid an interest in the leader of the free world — it’s part of a newspaper’s function and it should be of great interest to our readers. By the way, some people think we’re not supplying enough news and photos of the president.

So after last week’s “shithole” reference heard around the world, there was another round of questioning the media — why do they keep covering President Donald Trump? (I typically use [expletive] for foul and vulgar language, but I’m making an exception here. In part, because the POTUS unbelievably used this term to describe poor, struggling countries and in part because I declined to use his crude and filthy description of a woman’s anatomy in a previous column.)

Again, the answer is simple. The media cannot stop covering the leader of the free world. When someone wielding the power of the presidency behaves radically or inappropriately it becomes an even larger news story. Can you imagine a press which looked past the Nixon and Clinton administrations?

I understand the concept. Stop covering the crazy and we won't have to be embarrassed or terrified or just plain exhausted. Or, you're sick and tired of defending a president whom you believe is making America great again so let's stop pointing out the tweets already.
We can't stop. Government is meant to be held to strict scrutiny.

Perhaps the greatest threat under the Trump presidency, aside from nuclear war, is the attack on the press that covers it. The term “fake news” is commonplace, as is banning news organizations, threatening the change of libel laws and minimizing the freedom of the press.

As I walk into the office of the Newton Daily News, I walk past a quote of The First Amendment to the United States Constitution in which our forefathers guaranteed the freedom of the press. I have to believe it’s because they saw the importance of holding government accountable for its actions. I have to believe it’s because we should demand a press which functions as a vehicle to expose government’s action and inaction and as a watchdog that reports on wrongdoing.

Contact Abigail Pelzer
at apelzer@newtondailynews.com