It is bad enough that virtually every Senate Republican remains mute in the face of President-elect Donald Trump’s gusher of threats (most prominently, to prosecute opponents), lies (good for Time magazine to fact check its Person of the Year!) and absurdly unfit nominees. Unsurprisingly, docile Republicans raise no fuss over the conflicts of interest and self-dealing already evident in the transition. But that is not the worst of it.
Frankly, far too many Democrats have been overly solicitous of the incoming Trump team. Consider Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) praising vaccine conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In addition, a batch of them are embracing Trump’s proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” run by his billionaire cronies. While platitudes from Democrats about finding “common ground” may draw praise in some quarters, normalization of Trump’s personnel and agenda is as premature as it is unwise. Why not wait to see what he does? Why sustain the fiction that a president bent on tearing down government institutions and spreading conspiracies is an ordinary president?
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Most problematic to me are the troubling decisions of legacy media owners. We saw the pattern starting with The Post’s and the Los Angeles Times’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate, followed by MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s trek to Mar-a-Lago and then the spectacle of legacy and new media owners (including Post owner Jeff Bezos) kicking in $1 million each for the Trump inauguration. The widely panned ABC News defamation settlement might have been the worst instance of capitulation in the history of major defamation litigation. (In a whole other category of awful: the new, patently absurd L.A. Times “bias meter,” a sort of trigger warning for readers who cannot figure out which way a Times opinion columnist leans, and the constant owner-meddling.)
Decisions like these don’t mollify Trump; they invite further abuse. (Sure enough, Trump is now threatening to sue the Des Moines Register over a poll he didn’t like.) Media owners paying cold, hard cash to an incoming president (whether by settlement or donation) mars their organizations’ independence and gives rise to suspicion that those outlets will pull their punches. The last thing news organizations should do is give the appearance of “pay to play.”
I can do no better in reaffirming journalistic standards that seem quaint these days than to reiterate The Post’s own “Seven Principles for the Conduct of a Newspaper,” published by Post owner Eugene Meyer in 1935:
The sort of behavior we have witnessed from many legacy outlets will not help win back audiences who have lost faith in them. (Progressives are horrified; right-wingers will never patronize them.) Maintaining financial and personal distance from the president, whom news organizations are obligated to investigate and hold accountable, should not be difficult.
If people in positions of public trust, whether in elected office or in media, do not demonstrate — in deed and word — sufficient courage, fidelity to democracy and resistance to authoritarian manipulation, we will tip into a kakistocracy without much of a fight. Sadly, the past few weeks have not been encouraging.
Frankly, far too many Democrats have been overly solicitous of the incoming Trump team. Consider Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) praising vaccine conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In addition, a batch of them are embracing Trump’s proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” run by his billionaire cronies. While platitudes from Democrats about finding “common ground” may draw praise in some quarters, normalization of Trump’s personnel and agenda is as premature as it is unwise. Why not wait to see what he does? Why sustain the fiction that a president bent on tearing down government institutions and spreading conspiracies is an ordinary president?
Follow Jennifer Rubin
Most problematic to me are the troubling decisions of legacy media owners. We saw the pattern starting with The Post’s and the Los Angeles Times’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate, followed by MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s trek to Mar-a-Lago and then the spectacle of legacy and new media owners (including Post owner Jeff Bezos) kicking in $1 million each for the Trump inauguration. The widely panned ABC News defamation settlement might have been the worst instance of capitulation in the history of major defamation litigation. (In a whole other category of awful: the new, patently absurd L.A. Times “bias meter,” a sort of trigger warning for readers who cannot figure out which way a Times opinion columnist leans, and the constant owner-meddling.)
Decisions like these don’t mollify Trump; they invite further abuse. (Sure enough, Trump is now threatening to sue the Des Moines Register over a poll he didn’t like.) Media owners paying cold, hard cash to an incoming president (whether by settlement or donation) mars their organizations’ independence and gives rise to suspicion that those outlets will pull their punches. The last thing news organizations should do is give the appearance of “pay to play.”
I can do no better in reaffirming journalistic standards that seem quaint these days than to reiterate The Post’s own “Seven Principles for the Conduct of a Newspaper,” published by Post owner Eugene Meyer in 1935:
If a news organization offers up financial tribute or shies from endorsing an opponent, readers and viewers have every right to question its impartiality, aggressiveness and spine.
The sort of behavior we have witnessed from many legacy outlets will not help win back audiences who have lost faith in them. (Progressives are horrified; right-wingers will never patronize them.) Maintaining financial and personal distance from the president, whom news organizations are obligated to investigate and hold accountable, should not be difficult.
If people in positions of public trust, whether in elected office or in media, do not demonstrate — in deed and word — sufficient courage, fidelity to democracy and resistance to authoritarian manipulation, we will tip into a kakistocracy without much of a fight. Sadly, the past few weeks have not been encouraging.
