TRUMP VS THE MEDIA
That the media didn’t see this coming was remarkable... This movement was poised to be violent and destructive. The day after Floyd’s killing, there was a riot where activists attacked police with rocks and water bottles. The following day, Minneapolis burned. The violence wasn’t contained... It was spreading as fast as the coronavirus. Knowing a peaceful racial justice movement could sign the Trump campaign’s death certificate, media members bent over backwards to either downplay the violence or justify it, perhaps thinking it would end in a night or two. As businesses and neighborhoods were destroyed, media members became the movement’s public relations firm.
While there was clear bias and nefarious intent in the endless hours of coverage that outlets gave to Trump in 2016, the media wasn’t openly campaigning against him. But that all changed when Trump became president... It seemed like a simple-enough task... The country was united in anger over Floyd’s murder, and the immediate response from scores of voters were marches in the streets. This could be a winning issue, and Biden was positioned as the leader who could take the mantle for meaningful change. Biden’s a uniter, and Trump is a racist divider . But little did they expect the civil unrest to spiral violently out of control and sustain itself over the summer. called it a “dog whistle.” Did the president say he enjoyed the film Gone with the Wind ? Yup, that’s another “dog whistle” according to Los Angeles Times critic Justin Chang. But these were small nitpicks that won’t get a country to dump Trump. So when George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, the media saw a huge opening. Not only could they help amplify messages many media members already agreed with – that there’s systemic racism inherent in everyday life and that we must reign in the police – but they could use the anger on the streets to push the president out of the White House.
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October 2020
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