Trump Satire Shows the Globe's Hypocrisy
SAN DIEGO -- Newspapers ought to focus on doing good journalism, and leave the satire to professionals.
Just look at the ruckus that ensued when The Boston Globe created a mock front-page postdated a year from now, in April 2017. Running this past Sunday in the paper's "Ideas" section, and put together by the editorial board, the parody imagined what the world might be like if Donald Trump were elected president.
In what could have been called the newspaper's doomsday edition, the page's headlines included: "U.S. soldiers refuse orders to kill ISIS families" and "Markets sink as trade war looms."
In the lower left-hand corner, there was a note that read: "What you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP front-runner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action. Many Americans might find this vision appealing, but the Globe's editorial board finds it deeply troubling."
Trump supporters were more troubled by the stunt. Many of those who called into conservative radio shows condemned it as unfair, biased and needlessly provocative. Conservative media watchdogs called the whole idea "sophomoric" and "absurd."
The candidate was certainly outraged. During a rally Sunday in upstate New York, Trump tore into the newspaper.
"How about that stupid Boston Globe," Trump said to the crowd. He noted that the newspaper had, four years ago, been sold for a fraction of what it had been worth a couple of decades earlier.
The billionaire called the newspaper "totally dishonest" and essentially claimed that there wasn't a shred of truth in anything that was printed.
"The whole front page is a make-believe story, which is really no different from the whole paper, the whole thing," Trump said. "I mean the whole thing is made up."
Well, not quite. Many of these farcical stories were rooted in things that Trump has said, promises he has made, or policies he has proposed. He has to own that. It's long past time that he takes responsibility for what comes out of his mouth.
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Copyright 2016 Washington Post Writers Group
