Democracy dies in the plain light of day

PLUS: David Pepper on how Ohio can become a blue state again

Reporters at a White House news conference with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on June 7, 2021 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

CNN’s Jake Tapper recently said something rather astonishing in a discussion with

Charlie Sykes

on The Bulwark Podcast:

Sykes asked:

What is the right balance to strike and what do you think of the wall-to-wall, empty podium coverage that we got again last week?

Tapper’s response:

Well, it’s a complicated question because I don’t see every one of these things as the same. For instance, like showing Donald Trump flying to Washington, D.C. in the motorcade, arriving for this historic and in some ways tragic event where he was arrested and arraigned at the federal courthouse. That’s news. It’s not positive for him. It’s not celebrating him, it’s not celebratory. It’s news.

Now, is that the same thing as, for instance, the time that we all got rickrolled [emphasis added] when he said he was going to acknowledge that Barack Obama was born in the U.S. Right? And that was just, we were all just sitting around. And I don’t know what MS or Fox or anyone else was doing because I was anchoring CNN, or I was part of the team at CNN, but we were just sitting around and watching an empty podium while Donald Trump was about to say something, acknowledging the reality that Barack Obama was born in the US, which is not a proud moment for the media I don’t think.

Because we were being used by the campaign [emphasis added] and I mean it’s offensive on its face when you think about the fact that this was even a matter of discussion. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. I mean, like why were we all sitting around breathlessly waiting for him to acknowledge that he’d been perpetuating a racist lie for a decade, that does not speak well about us.

And then there is another example. For instance, when he was arrested and arraigned in Florida and then he stopped and went into this Versailles cafe, this Cuban cafe, and people sang happy birthday to him and this and that and the value of that, that question as well. So I don’t know that I agree with all of the criticism, but I certainly think that there are nuances and ways to talk about different points of it. I myself didn’t care for the Versailles cafe coverage because I found it was… We don’t do that for anyone. There are no campaign stops that any candidate does that we cover live: Biden, DeSantis, Nikki Haley. So why were we doing it for him? I just think there needs to be more discussions and debates in newsrooms before just running whatever is the latest live feed. Yeah, and that’s the point right now. We shouldn’t just be running live feeds because we can’t. I agree with that.

Rickrolled.

Peter Hamby is a political, technology and media reporter at the upstart Puck. He has perfectly and precisely laid bare the credibility apocalypse that faces America’s political media. His writing is a masterclass on explanation and the absurdist worldview that permeates a cloistered clique in Washington, DC, that routinely celebrates its virtue, proclaims its entitlements and demands attention, despite being held in disdain by the overwhelming majority of the country, which dithers between distrust and disinterest with regard to what they say.

Ponder this from Hamby’s article. It is amazing.

In late July, Biden announced a rule to strengthen access to mental health care for about 150 million Americans. Network nightly news broadcasts are the most-watched news format in the country, garnering anywhere from 4 to 7 million viewers each night, and not a single broadcast covered the mental health news.

What possible explanation could there be for this? Does America have a suicide epidemic? A teenage suicide crisis? A veterans’ suicide crisis? A middle-aged white male suicide crisis?

Check. Check. Check. Check.

Does America have a loneliness epidemic? A massive mental health crisis?

Check. Check.

The important thing to remember though is this: presidential actions to help real people aren’t news.

Here is another razor sharp insight from Hamby that slices through the usual platitudes and nonsense regarding what is and isn’t news. Sensationalism sells. It always has.

Biden is simply boring, compared to Trump, and also compared to Barack Obama. Yes, there are enormous macro-stories going on at all times that involve the White House — the war in Ukraine, the creeping threat of climate change, the fraying of the country’s social fabric. But those aren’t the kinds of topics that get blood flowing for day-to-day political reporters following Biden around. They want leaks from inside the West Wing, personality clashes between senior advisers, scoops on who is joining the re-elect and who isn’t. Biden has been around Washington for almost half a century, and his inner circle just doesn’t offer the same juicy leaks that drove so much press coverage with other first-term presidents. The bag of cocaine and the Hunter Biden saga are filling that void.

Much of the American media served as stenographers during the Trump era. They were employed by his business partners, who made billions producing the Trump show that came within a fucking micro-inch of wrecking the republic on fascist rocks.

The masthead of The Washington Post has read “Democracy Dies in Darkness” for the last six years. It stands as a daily monument of naïveté, smug self-seriousness and delusion that will be a beacon to our descendants in the task of unraveling how the country became so lost in this moment. What will be most obvious is that democracy dies at noon, in the plain light of day, slowly and painfully over many long tedious years.

It dies in part because access media stars kill off the journalists, while politicians sell out their country and betray their oaths. It dies because of the apathy and indifference of the American people who, in the end, are responsible for all that is done in their name. It dies because of cynicism, greed, arrogance and a lack of imagination for menace amongst the duplicitous schemers who plot for power in broad daylight.

The president of the United States doesn’t have an obligation to explain himself to the menagerie that calls itself the White House press corps. He works for the American people, not the Jeff Bezos-owned The Washington Post, the shareholders of The New York Times, who employs the woman whom Trump calls “his psychiatrist,” or anyone else. His job is clear and straightforward. It consists of 35 words. It’s the job. Here they are:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Why does an organization — the White House Correspondents’ Association — think they have an entitlement to ask the president questions? Substantively, they are frequently “duped” and absolutely incapable of operating as an institution with coordinated follow-up questions. It includes utterly and outrageously dishonest companies, like Fox News, that are societal arsonists and filled with pathological liars. They have no credibility whatsoever, and the whining should be inspiring music to the ears of the Biden communications team who should ignore them with extreme prejudice. When will the next news conference be? How about half past never, ever? Does that work for everyone?

The White House should certainly make the president available for interviews with the journalists who have earned trust, and are known for their integrity. People like Robert Costa, Gayle King and Margaret Brennan will ask tough questions, but they will be relevant, insightful and informative, unlike the clown show that plays out in the White House briefing room. The president should connect with the American people where they are, not where they aren’t. Where they aren’t is watching cable news and reading the angst of Washington, DC, access reporters who feel ignored. Who cares?

Someday when America has crawled through and out of this sewer, there will be some blessings from the collective experience. Here are two of them:

First, everyone got to be exactly who they are, and show it to the world. Mostly, America’s elected representatives in the Republican Party are all Lindsey Grahams with some heroic exceptions. They are dishonest, hollow, faithless, brittle, needy and contemptible beyond any capacity of mine to describe.

Second, no person ever has to pretend these charlatans and wack jobs are religious leaders. They are dangerous authoritarians who would kill millions if they ever took power. 

Case in point: `Pastor Paula, Trump’s “faith advisor”

The media in America has lost its authority, while a small number of journalists have retained theirs.

The American media is breaking and being remade. The truth matters, and there will always be a market for it. Looking for the White House press corps to uncover it is like looking for an honest Trump. Forget about it.

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This week on The Warning podcast

I had the privilege of sitting down with David Pepper, former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party from 2015 to 2021, to discuss how Ohio became a red state in the last decade, and what Democrats can do to flip it blue in order to defeat Donald Trump. We also talked about Ohioans’ decision to vote against Issue 1 in last week’s special election.

I’d encourage you to read David’s latest book, “Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American.”

You can have a listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or simply click on the link below.

If you’d prefer to read the transcript, you can do so here.

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Last chance to Ask Me Anything!

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Look forward to hearing what you have on your mind!

Steve