How Wreck-It Donald broke the media
SAN DIEGO -- A few years ago, after I wrote a column listing 10 mistakes that journalists have made in the Trump era, my first newspaper editor tracked me down. He had seen the column, and he was not pleased. He said I should lay off our profession. These times are tough enough for media companies and the people who work for them.
Sorry, Boss. You're not going to like this one either.
People in the news business are paid to think critically, stay curious and be aware of their surroundings.
Yet, these days, if the story is about President Trump, many of my colleagues don't think about being fair. Nor are they curious about how we got here. And they're not all that self-aware about the mistakes they're making.
The last one is a doozy. Journalists are quick to point out an error committed by others but miss it when we commit the same error.
After last week's Democratic debate, Breitbart News reporter Aaron Klein badgered Julián Castro in the so-called "spin room," where journalists gather to interview participants after the last punch is thrown.
Klein tried to get Castro to denounce as anti-Semitic two members of the so-called "Squad" -- Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. Refusing the bait, Castro told the reporter: "I don't know which comment you're talking about, so all I can speak to is, and I believe -- I don't believe that they are anti-Semitic."
Asked and answered. But Klein didn't seem to like Castro's answer, so he kept probing for an answer he might like better. What about the time that Omar tweeted a line about how the support that Israel enjoys in Congress -- from both parties -- is "all about the Benjamins"? he asked. Castro walked away.
Had it been me, I'd have stayed and argued. But then, I'm not running for president with a plane to catch. I've got all day. Castro obviously didn't want to be mired in a back and forth with a member of the Fourth Estate who was acting like a first-class jerk.
Sound familiar? We've seen a variation of this exchange before. In Iowa, in August 2015, the politician being badgered was Trump, and the jerk was the left-leaning Jorge Ramos.
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