Will the Real Donald Trump Please Stand Up? How Did the Press Cover the President's March 10, 2018 Pennsylvania Rally?

Donald Trump, WH photo

After several weeks of trying to sound "presidential," whatever that means, Donald Trump reverted to campaign-style rally speaking yesterday in Pennsylvania. He was campaigning for Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone, who faces an unexpectedly tough race against Democrat Conor Lamb.

I'll have more to say about this hour-plus long speech later. Right now, let's look at how the press covered it through an ideological lens.

Maxine Waters, official photo

Let's start with mainstream CNN. CNN's website lead about this speech focused on Mr. Trump's obviously racist dog-whistle against African American Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who suggested impeaching Mr. Trump. He denied that he had done anything wrong, and mocked her: "Did you ever see her? Did you ever see her? 'We will impeach him. We will impeach the president.'" He said that Waters had "a very low IQ." Since Waters is obviously a quite intelligent woman, there is no explanation for that comment except for its being a racist slur against her. (Many racists believe that people of African descent are less intelligent.) The idea of the dog whistle - communication professionals call this "multivocal communication" to make it seem more scholarly - is that Trump's audience understands the point, while other people can miss the racist undertone. Furthermore, Mr. Trump can, and probably will, deny that he said anything racist.

Fox, which is more conservative, has often been assertively pro-Trump, and likes to act as if they are not a mainstream source, published a web article about the speech that didn't mention Waters at all. They noted that Trump insulted CNN's Chuck Todd as "a sleeping son of a b----, I'll tell you." They also reported that he said that Lamb would vote the Democratic Party line and emphasized Mr. Trump's proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, which he said would help Pennsylvania's steel industry.

Few people, comparatively speaking, will hear or read the entire very long speech. Most people get their information about important speeches from news reports. But since all news reports are selective, the public only finds out what their favorite news source tells them. Fox viewers presumably were happy to hear bad things about CNN, but didn't want to hear anyone say that Mr. Trump is racist. Fox gave them what they wanted. CNN focused on Trump's racist comments.

What can the viewing public do? Simple. If you are happy to hide in a hole and believe only your own ideology, get your news from your favorite source. If you want the truth, follow your junior-high school teacher's advice and get your news from multiple sources. Only then can you be an informed voter.