Staff Reports
The media still can’t figure out how to handle the Trump phenomenon, almost ten years after he stepped foot onto the political scene and sent the establishment into a whirl. As Trump positions himself for yet another shot at the presidency, the debate continues to rage about whether journalists engage in “sanewashing” his rhetoric or simply succumb to the “banality of crazy.” They are caught in a bind; some wonder if they should broadcast his rallies for all to see or if they should pretend he doesn’t exist at all. The result? A circus of confusion that’s becoming almost comical.
Reports suggest the media struggles with Trump’s unapologetic approach to political discourse, and it’s clear that he has them scratching their heads. The notion that Trump presents an existential threat to journalistic norms would be amusing if it weren’t so serious. It appears that the majority of the media have gotten it entirely wrong by attempting to rein him in instead of allowing Americans to hear him unabashedly state his position. The experts have now concluded that perhaps airing Trump verbatim is the way to go, abandoning the once-cherished belief that reporters should sanitize what he says.
Sanewashing? The banality of crazy? A decade into the Trump era, media hasn’t figured him out https://t.co/brDMAv5yim
— L.A. Daily News (@ladailynews) October 9, 2024
The term “sanewashing” has emerged to describe the tendency for reporters to dull Trump’s more outrageous claims or twist them into palatable statements suited for the political mainstream. Of course, they can’t go without criticizing his “dark” speeches filled with warnings about the dangers of illegal immigrants – because who wouldn’t? After all, tweets about “the radical left” and “fake news” are much easier to report when squared away neatly in a news headline without the accompanying panic of how they affect the narrative.
Even when Trump famously claimed that criminals could come into homes and “cut your throat,” some media outlets chose to bury this in their stories or ignore it entirely. Alternatively, Trump’s quip about Vice President Harris being “mentally disabled” was seized upon, with networks using it as fodder for their news cycles. It demonstrates that the media seems to take offense at the topics they want to address while glossing over more serious implications of his rhetoric that might resonate with the public.
The media, which has found itself with dwindling popularity under Trump’s reign, appears torn between exposing the truth and perpetuating narratives that fit their biases. They love to showcase press experts lamenting Trump’s effects on traditional journalism. However, they seem to ignore that many voters don’t want their heroes vetted through an “elite” filter—they want to hear what he has to say raw and unedited. Given that the mainstream media once cannonballed into covering his rallies for the sake of ratings, their trepidation now feels a little late to the party, or, for lack of a better term, a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
In the end, journalists are like deer in headlights when it comes to Trump. They’re baffled by his astonishing ability to defy conventional wisdom, and their attempts to stifle him can’t hide the fact that Trump is here to stay—unfiltered and unapologetic. Whether they want to admit it or not, there’s something simultaneously brilliant and crazy about how he communicates, and the American people are increasingly getting fed up with being told which part they’re supposed to believe.
