It is no surprise that former President Donald Trump and the media had a contentious, if not symbiotic, relationship. During his presidency, Trump called media outlets “the enemy of the people” on more than one occasion. Doing so was wrong, even if left-leaning news organizations dominate the airwaves. The real enemies of the people don’t reside within a free press.
The near-daily presidential pushback against news anchors, websites, and channels helped to create a unified resistance among his more ardent detractors. Instead of just covering the 45th president, some journalists grew to view themselves as crusaders against pure evil. They weren’t just battling against an ideological enemy but an “existential threat.” The Jim Acostas of the world were on the front lines and should have been honored for their sheer courage. These conclusions about the worth of journalists in the era of Trump continue to be utter nonsense. No matter how much Trump crossed the line, it was never true that journalism during his time as president was akin to facing actual oppression.
In a Thursday article at the Atlantic, author Alexander Nazaryan described his time covering the 45th president as “thrilling, without a single boring day.” Anyone who paid attention during the past four years can attest to the constant stream of chaos in the president’s Twitter feed, cable news, and online. But Nazaryan goes beyond that description and makes an offensive comparison, saying: “Covering the administration was thrilling for many journalists, in the way that I imagine storming Omaha Beach must have been for a 20-year-old fresh from the plains of Kansas. Journalists were merely going where he led. This was our Omaha Beach.”
It most certainly was not. The Trump years were unique and unprecedented, but they were nowhere near facing a foe on the field of battle with the possibility of losing one’s life for merely being involved.
The further we move away from Trump’s time as president, the more likely we are to see these arrogant summaries. Journalists who stood opposite him may come to believe the previous four years were much more grand and dangerous than they actually were, given their supposedly righteous mission. If Trump’s description of the press as the “enemy of the American people” was wrong, so, too, is embellishing one’s time on the receiving end.
Now that President Biden is in office, journalists are once again settling into the zone they inhabited during former President Barack Obama’s eight years in office. In other words, their staunch commitment to transparency and truth has been replaced by wide-eyed admiration. You see, Biden is not Trump, and that fact alone wins their collective hearts. But after years of watching biased coverage of Trump, the people largely don’t trust the media, and rightly so. And swooning over the 46th president and labeling it impartiality will not win them back any favor.
One of the many lessons conservatives have learned from the preceding years is that Trump often goes too far in the characterization of his enemies. But while his inflated rhetoric needs toning down, it does not also mean that a 180-degree turn is in order.
While journalists are not the enemy of regular citizens, they do not represent a wholly trustworthy and unbiased group. Many of them will claim to bring just as much tenacity to their assessments of the current administration. But their favoritism is already on display.
No matter who is in office, those who live in the United States reside in a privileged and free society that is far removed from the hardships faced in other countries. This includes members of the media. Voters of all stripes should be circumspect as they evaluate and consume news. The sharp, noticeable, and positive reversal from covering Trump is not proof that journalists were oppressed under his leadership. Don’t let them alter recent history to convince otherwise.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
