Sanewashing? The banality of crazy? A decade into the Trump era, media hasn't figure him out

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Sanewashing? The banality of crazy? A decade into the Trump era, media hasn't figure him out

2024-10-09 22:44 Last Updated At：22:51

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly a decade into the Trump Era of politics, less than a month from his third Election Day as the Republican candidate for president and there is still remarkably little consensus within the media about how best to cover Donald Trump.

Are reporters “sanewashing” Trump, or are they succumbing to the “banality of crazy?" Should his rallies be aired at length, or not at all? To fact-check or not fact-check?

“If it wasn't so serious, I would just be fascinated by all of it,” said Parker Molloy, media critic and author of The Present Age column on Substack. “If it didn't have to do with who is going to be president, I would watch this and marvel at how difficult it is to cover one person who seems to challenge all of the rules of journalism.”

Books and studies will be written about Trump and the press long after he is gone. He's always been press-conscious and press-savvy, even as a celebrity builder in Manhattan who took a keen interest in what tabloid gossip columns said about him. Most issues stem from Trump's disdain for constraints, his willingness to say the outrageous and provably untrue, and for his fans to believe him instead of those reporting on him.

It has even come full circle, where some experts now think the best way to cover him is to give people a greater opportunity to hear what he says — the opposite of what was once conventional wisdom.

Molloy first used the phrase “sanewashing” this fall to describe a tendency among journalists to launder some of Trump's wilder or barely coherent statements to make them seem like the cogent pronouncements of a typical politician. One example she cites: CNN distilling a Trump post on Truth Social that rambled on about the “radical left” and “fake news” into a straight news lead about the former president agreeing to debate his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

At its best, polishing Trump creates an alternative narrative, she said. At its worst, it's misinformation.

During a Wisconsin rally the last weekend of September, Trump talked of danger from criminals allowed in the country illegally. “They will walk into your kitchen, they'll cut your throat,” he said. The New Republic writer Michael Tomasky was surprised not to find the quote in The New York Times' and Washington Post's coverage, although The Times noted that Trump vilified undocumented immigrants, and there were other media references to what Trump himself called a dark speech.

“Trump constantly saying extreme, racist violent stuff can't always be new,” Tomasky wrote. “But it is always reality. Is the press justified in ignoring reality just because it isn't new?”

One likely reason the remark didn't get that much attention is because Trump — at the same rally — referred to Harris without evidence as “mentally disabled.”

That comment merited quick mention on the ABC and CBS evening newscasts the next day, in the context of criticism from two fellow Republicans, and after stories about Hurricane Helene's devastation and war in the Middle East. NBC's “Nightly News” didn't bring it up at all.

In other words, Trump said something wild. What's new? More than sanewashing, political scientist Brian Klaas calls that the banality of crazy, where journalists become accustomed to things Trump says that would be shocking coming from other candidates simply because they're numbed to it.

Illuminating reporting on Trump rarely fits the model of quick news stories that sum up daily developments. “This really serves the small group of news consumers that we would call news junkies, who follow the campaign day to day,” said Kelly McBride, senior vice president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. “But it doesn't help people decide how to vote, or understand the candidate better.”

Trump critics often complain about how the nation's leading news outlets cover him. But they sometimes overlook attempts to bring perspective to issues they're concerned with. The Times, for example, used a computer to compare his speeches now with older ones in a story Sunday, and similarly had a Sept. 9 examination of questions about Trump's age and mental capacity. The Post has written about how Trump doesn't mention his father's Alzheimer's Disease as he attacks others about mental capacity, and distortions about a cognitive test he took. The Associated Press wrote of Trump's Wisconsin rally that he “shifted from topic to topic so quickly that it was hard to keep track of what he meant at times.”

“Trump is a really difficult figure to cover because he challenges news media processes every day, has for years,” The Times' Maggie Haberman, one of Trump's best-known chroniclers, told NPR last month. “The systems ... were not built to deal with somebody who says things that are not true as often as he does or speaks as incoherently as he often does. I think the media has actually done a good job showing people who he is, what he says, what he does.”

Press critics may instead be frustrated that the work doesn't have the impact they seek. “The people who don't like or are infuriated by him cannot believe his success and would like the press to somehow persuade the people who do like him that they are wrong,” said Tom Rosenstiel, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland. “And the press can't do that.”

One of the central issues surrounding the three general election debates was how, or whether, the television networks would fact-check the candidates in real time on the air.

CNN didn't during Trump's debate with President Joe Biden last spring. When ABC's moderators corrected Trump four times during his September debate with Harris, the former president's supporters were infuriated. CBS News sought a middle ground during the vice presidential debate, and learned how hard it is to satisfy everyone.

“F you CBS — how DARE YOU,” Megyn Kelly posted on X when CBS briefly cut JD Vance 's microphone after correcting him on a comment about immigrants. Salon media critic Melanie McFarland wrote that the people best equipped to point out truth “barely rose to that duty.”

The fact-check industry flourished during Trump's years in office, the number of such websites devoted to that duty jumping from 63 in 2016 to 79 in 2020, according to the Duke Reporters' Lab. Yet limitations were also exposed: Republicans demonized the practice, to the point where many Trump supporters either don't believe those who try to referee what's true or false, or don't bother reading. In day-to-day reporting, it's not enough to point out when a politician is wrong, Rosenstiel said. They must clearly explain why.

Journalists, who rarely win popularity contests to begin with, saw their collective reputations plummet under withering attacks from Trump.

In the heady days of 2015, television news networks like CNN showed Trump campaign rallies at length. It was entertaining. It drove ratings. What harm could be done?

Many later regretted that decision. Throughout his presidency and beyond, television outlets that are not Trump-friendly have grappled with the question of how much to show Trump unfiltered, and still haven't fully settled on an answer. CNN shows Trump at rallies on occasion, rarely at length.

But in a back-to-the-future move, some experts now say it's best to let people hear what Trump says. Poynter's McBride praised The 19th for a story on child care when, frustrated by an attempt to clarify Trump's positions with his campaign, the website simply printed a baffling 365-word direct quote from Trump when he was asked about the issue.

While fact checks and context have their place, there's value in presenting Trump in the raw. “Showing Trump at length is not sanewashing,” Rosenstiel said.

Molloy admitted to some surprise at how much traction her original column on sanewashing received. It may reflect a desire to define the undefinable, to figure out what the news media still hasn't been able to after all this time. She notes the politicians who try to emulate Trump but fail.

“They don't have what makes him Donald Trump,” she said. “People can look at it as part of his brilliance and people can look at it as him being crazy. It's probably a little of both.”

David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.

Middle East latest: Dozens killed as Israeli troops pound central and northern Gaza

2024-10-09 22:49 Last Updated At：22:50

Israel’s bombardment of central and northern Gaza has killed dozens of people and trapped thousands in their homes, Palestinian officials said Wednesday, as the death toll in the yearlong war passed 42,000.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya from Sunday until Tuesday, and another 14 from communities farther north. The toll is likely higher as there are bodies buried under the rubble and in areas that can’t be accessed, it said.

Among the dead Wednesday were nine people, including three children, whose bodies were brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the morgue.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesperson, said that Israeli forces were operating in Jabaliya to prevent Hamas from regrouping and had killed around 100 militants, without providing evidence. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it fights in residential areas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel has killed the successor to the head of Hezbollah, while the militant group's acting leader promised more fighting in southern Lebanon.

A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.

Here is the latest:

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon and considers how to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.

The leaders’ call, previewed by three people familiar with the matter, including an official in Netanyahu’s office, will be the first conversation between Biden and Netanyahu since Aug. 21.

The three people were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Israel has been discussing how to respond to the Iranian missile barrage from Oct. 1, which the United States helped to fend off. Biden last week said he would not support a retaliatory Israeli strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.

Since the leaders’ last call seven weeks ago, Israel has carried out a brazen sabotage and assassination campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the militant group has continued to fire missiles, rockets and drones at Israel.

Israel is now undertaking what it has described as limited ground operations across its northern border with Lebanon to dig out Hezbollah. Airstrikes killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and decimated its leadership.

— By Aamer Madhani

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli first responders say a man and a woman were killed by a rocket fired from Lebanon.

The Magen David Adom rescue service said the two were killed Wednesday when a rocket struck the northern town of Kiryat Shmona.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in recent days as Israel has ramped up its airstrikes in Lebanon and pushed ahead with a ground incursion.

Most of the rockets have been intercepted or landed in open areas, but the barrages have grown more intense and have reached deeper into Israel, disrupting daily life.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack from Gaza into Israel ignited the war. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allied with Iran, and Hezbollah said the attacks were in support of the Palestinians.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict escalated into a full-blown war last month.

BEIRUT — The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a hotel-turned-shelter for displaced people in southern Lebanon.

Ten others were wounded in the strike that hit the building in Wardaniyeh in Lebanon’s Chouf province.

An Associated Press reporter in a nearby town heard two sonic booms and an explosion from Israeli jets before the strike, followed by plumes of black and white smoke rising from the building.

TEL AVIV, Israel — At least six people were stabbed and wounded in northern Israel in what police say was a militant attack.

Police said the assailant stabbed people in multiple locations in the northern city of Hadera on Wednesday before fleeing on a motorbike. Police said they later shot and “neutralized” him, indicating he was killed. They did not provide the name or nationality of the assailant.

Five of the people who were attacked were in critical or severe condition, while the sixth was moderately wounded, according to the nearby Hillel Yaffe Medical Center.

Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years, and tensions have spiked over the war in Gaza.

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered government agencies Wednesday to prepare to evacuate Filipinos “by whatever means” from Lebanon.

Marcos held a virtual meeting with key Cabinet members while attending a summit of Southeast Asia leaders in Laos, underscoring the urgency as Israel intensified attacks against the militant group Hezbollah.

“We are now going to evacuate our people by whatever means — by air, or by sea,” Marcos said, adding that any ship to be used has to be positioned near Beirut so Filipinos could immediately leave.

About 11,000 Filipinos live and work in Lebanon, including many house helpers, but Philippine Foreign Affairs officials say many are hesitant to leave their jobs. Only about 171 Filipinos in Lebanon were ready for immediate repatriation, they said.

BEIRUT — Turkish navy ships docked at a port in Beirut on Wednesday as a part of a mission to bring humanitarian aid to Lebanon and evacuate Turkish citizens.

Two of the ships, which can accommodate up to 2,000 passengers, were carrying up to 300 tons of humanitarian aid consisting of food, tents and blankets, according to a statement from the Turkish Defense Ministry.

Rear Adm. Nihat Baran, commander of the evacuation mission, said the trip was ordered by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “to ensure that our citizens living in Lebanon are transferred to Turkey safely.”

Citizens of Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan also applied for the evacuation, the ministry said.

The two ships are part of a larger six-vessel convoy that departed the southern port of Mersin early Wednesday. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said additional evacuations would be organized if necessary.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll from the war in Gaza has passed 42,000.

The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count, but has said women and children make up more than half of those killed.

It said Wednesday that 42,010 Palestinians have been killed and 97,720 wounded since the start of the war, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel.

BERLIN — German police say they dissolved a pro-Palestinian protest camp in the western city of Dortmund after organizers told them that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was planning to visit the camp.

Dortmund police said late Tuesday the decision was made, among other reasons, because Thunberg’s appearance would probably have drawn more people to the protest camp than originally permitted.

The dismantling of the camp, which had been in existence for months, was accepted without resistance, police said. Seven protesters were present at the camp on Tuesday, but Thunberg did not appear, German news agency dpa reported.

On Monday, Thunberg participated in a pro-Palestinian protest in Berlin.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes in central and northern Gaza killed at least 18 people, including five children and two women.

Two strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza early Wednesday. The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the morgue.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a family home in the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least nine people, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run government. The dead were taken to the Al-Ahly Hospital, which said two women and two children were among those killed.

Footage shared by the Civil Defense showed first responders recovering dead bodies and body parts from under the rubble.

Israel launched an air and ground operation earlier this week in Jabaliya, a densely populated urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israel has carried out several previous operations in Jabaliya, and its forces have repeatedly returned to other areas of Gaza after militants have regrouped.