Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane said that anyone calling out the news media for giving Donald Trump a pass is wrong, and that coverage of the Republican nominee has been especially aggressive.
In a column for the Post published Wednesday night, Lane said the media have done their best to vet Trump and that his popularity among voters remains despite that.
“This is silly. The media have been very tough on Trump, relentlessly so,” he wrote. “To cite just one organization, The Post, our David A. Fahrenthold has been terrier-like in pursuit of the damning facts of Trump’s phony philanthropy. A Post team published a critical book about the Republican nominee, for heaven’s sake.”
Lane’s remarks stand in contradiction to what many critics within the media say. In recent weeks, many reporters and news commentators have said that Trump has received inadequately aggressive news coverage.
CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter said on his show in August that it’s near treasonous for any journalist not to challenge Trump on his “dangerous” rhetoric, with specific regards to when the candidate’s claims that the election system is “rigged.”
“Journalists cannot just play these soundbites, quote these claims and then move on to the next subject,” said Stelter. “We can’t just let it seep into the discourse like it’s normal. We have to stop and fact check and contextualize.”
Even through a series of seemingly endless controversies a negative reports, Trump has trailed but remains within striking distance of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who leads most national polls.
Lane said instead of complaining about the media’s coverage of Trump, critics should try to understand the “futility” of the press against the candidate.
