How to Cover Trump? Literally and Seriously
One, we should be adversarial without being hostile -- even as the newsmaker and his or her followers are calling us "scum" and other unkind things. Sticks and stones may break or bones but we have deadlines to meet.
Two, dodge his dodges. Trump has been promoting his name as a valuable brand across multiple platforms since the 1970s. He is a master of distractions.
Notice how he became agitated over the politics of Broadway's "Hamilton" cast on a day when his angry tweets could take the spotlight away from his $25 million settlement of fraud charges by customers of Trump University.
Notice how his stubborn refusal to take a question from CNN's Jim Acosta in a live news conference took attention away from the big issue in the question: Intelligence chiefs, CNN said, had presented a 35-page dossier to president-elect Trump and to President Barack Obama that suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin had gathered compromising information from spying on Trump's visits to Russia.
The media should keep their eyes on the prize. Focus on the story that's most important, not just click-bait for eyeballs on the web.
Three, it is not a "media conspiracy" for reporters to band together in pursuit of accountability from public officials. When a president refuses to take an important question from one reporter, the next reporter should offer up the same question.
Something close to that Sparticus-like uprising occurred in September. When Trump allowed only photographers, not reporters, on his "press" tour of his new Washington, D.C., hotel, major television networks refused to use the pictures or video
That's the spirit. Reporters are not obligated to give any more free publicity to Trump's hotel. Try to limit journos and they tend to turn with increased vigor to potential stories that the newsmaker is least likely to want publicized.
As a former city editor of mine used to bark: Don't get mad, get nosy!
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2017 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
