In a moment, folks, I am going to say something quite encouraging about the coming Trump administration – so brace yourselves, people.
No, this is not an effort to figuratively kiss the ring, like what Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski are accused of running down to Mar-a-Lago to do – you know, to get Morning Joe on MSNBC in better standing with the man Joe and Mika have repeatedly (and rightly) bashed and belittled. Donald Trump and his minions certainly have not noticed my commentaries, I’m sure, so I feel no similar compulsion to try to get into his good graces now lest I be punished along with other “enemies of the people” in the news media.
Nor am I about to speak hopefully about the coming Trump term because I am eager to curry favor with those of you listening today who are happy that we have returned to the White House a twice-impeached, often indicted, criminally convicted, sexual predator. If you want a president whose prior term revealed how easily charmed he was by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, who added $7 trillion to the national debt, unleashed hatred among fellow citizens and so sloppily responded to the emergence of the pandemic that tens of thousands of Americans needlessly died – well, if that’s what you want in a president, that’s what you’re about to get, and I’m not here to tell you that I think your judgment is good.
And I’m not speaking from a post-Thanksgiving turkey serotonin high – the so-called “feel good” hormone that is stimulated in our bodies by an amino acid called tryptophan, which is, in fact, found in turkey. I believe my words here are considered, not the product of a swell of satiated sweetness.
Here is what’s good about the coming Trump administration – I think: It will bring, I believe, a renewed appreciation for real journalism. I mean, at least there’s a chance for that. There will be so much going on in Washington and across the country that is genuinely newsworthy, that will concern so many tens of millions of people, that will be unearthed and understood only through the efforts of capable, dedicated journalists, that I believe we will witness a renewed demand for what I call the journalism of truth.
We might be on the verge, then, of a new golden age of journalism.
This is not what you generally hear from old-timer journalists like me – those of us with decades of experience, who remember fully-staffed newsrooms and a nation of people who eagerly digested honest reporting and acted because they were empowered by the information it gave them. Mostly, from us, you hear the glum statistics: Only a third of Americans have any confidence in news reporting; far fewer read a newspaper, online or in print; and only 20 million people even watch nightly newscasts, which used to be how we all got a sort of shared story line of what’s happening. True: There are too few journalists now, though plenty of propagandists posing as fair arbiters of fact. And Trump is vowing to crack down on journalism – to challenge broadcast licenses, to strip away support for public broadcasting, to go after journalists’ sources in government.
But here’s why I say the Trump administration may turn out to be a blessing for journalism: because it will show why truth-telling matters, and it will reveal the stark divide between real journalism and the partisan pretenders.
Here’s one early sign of that: Matt Gaetz withdrew as Trump’s nominee for U.S. Attorney General withdrew an hour of CNN reporters asking for a response to a previously unreported allegation of sexual misconduct. The appointment of Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense is on similarly shaky ground because of what’s being reported about his background.
But beyond the appointments, consider the glass-half-full fact of the American electorate. At last count, Trump won 49.86 percent of the popular vote – enough to win, but not a mandate. 74.5 million voters didn’t want him in the White House – and that is a huge audience that is not as vulnerable to Trumpian prevarication as his misled supporters are. Trump is going to find the insider-outsider game very difficult – he can’t be both the guy who runs things and the defender of things that don’t run well. And his chaotic lame-duck administration, filled with misfits and misanthropes, will produce a lot of news.
Plus, there are scores of new journalism ventures taking hold in localities across the nation – mostly nonprofits, who are reminding citizens of why journalism matters, in their own cities and towns, and thus for the nation overall.
I’m not ignoring the challenges ahead for journalism: the difficulty of finding an audience in a splintered marketplace… the many ways that Trump and his administration will try to squelch real news… the hostility of a huge share of Americans to accountability journalism.
But I am saying that this situation produces energy for real reporting – makes it all the more essential – and this gives me hope that we are not at the end of the era of free and fair journalism in America, but at the beginning of a new one. You know, maybe in that way, it’s morning in America again.
Rex Smith, the co-host of The Media Project on WAMC, is the former editor of the Times Union of Albany and The Record in Troy. His weekly digital report, The Upstate American, is published by Substack.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.