Vicious, violent ideologies – white supremacy, fascism, communism – have become a regular and acceptable presence in the public square. Where is the media pushback?
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When I got married, we hired a videographer to film the event. Though we only booked him for a few hours, he worked overtime, arriving at our apartment around 10:00 AM, and staying through the end of the reception.
My nephew was our ring bearer. He was three. He had a little suit, with bowtie, and he came by our apartment where I was getting ready in the mid-afternoon. He hadn’t eaten dinner, and so he grew cranky.
The videographer caught him on camera, crying, and in our wedding video, there is a slow motion clip of him, as my mom fixes his tie, where he starts to wipe away the tears.
It is supposed to be moving, and it would be, except I was teaching 8th grade then, and my wedding coincided with our yearly unit on the Holocaust. For that reason, when I saw that part of our wedding video, all I could think about were all the children murdered in concentration camps.
I know this is morbid. But it happened. I watched my nephew cry on camera, and I started crying.
Because I think, for the first time, it really set in that all those children were real. They were somebody’s nephew who gets cranky and starts crying when they don’t get lunch. They were all somebody’s nephew, son, niece, daughter. To whom we failed.
We are not allowed to make the victims numbers, or faceless faces. We must confront them on the subjective merits, and stay with the main character’s perspective only. To stay human, and not drift into the dangers of abstraction.
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Utterly and forever.
I was reminded of that in reading about last night’s Foreign Film Oscar winner, Son of Saul. The New York Times has a beautiful tribute to the feat accomplished in the movie. Namely, that we are not allowed to make the victims numbers, or faceless faces. We must confront them on the subjective merits, meet the main character – a Jewish prisoner – and travel with his perspective as he struggles to provide a Jewish burial for one of the boys in his concentration camp.
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Why do I write of this, besides to give thanks and praise to Son of Saul director, László Nemes?
Because there is a man who the media has taken un-seriously. There is a man who has built his political campaign around being outrageous and scandalous.
And now he is normalizing horrifying and dangerous ideas. He is making them acceptable to say in the public square.
And instead of unmasking him and challenging him, journalists have given him a pass.
They’ve written thoughtful “think” pieces about his appeal to disenfranchised voters.
They’ve written triumphantly about his ability to “get things done.”
They’ve let him dictate what questions he will and won’t answer.
They’ve allowed him to hijack press coverage so that he is the only story.
And they have not even attempted to expose him as:
1) a man in the middle of a civil fraud case
2) a man who is on the verge of starting an international crisis on our southern border
3) a man who in the span of just one weekend managed to:
- imply the judge in his case cannot be fair because he is Hispanic
- refuse three times to denounce the KKK
- retweet a quote by fascist dictator Mussolini, and then refuse to distance himself from the murdering, Italian monster.
- side with the Chinese government over Tianamen Square, where that same government murdered peaceful student protestors.
In just one weekend.
Where in the everlasting hell has the media been on all this?
Wondering whether or not Rubio went too far in joking about Trump wetting himself during last week’s debate.
Many of the most unpatriotic people in this country can be found on your morning news shows, your cable bobble heads, your apologetic editorialists who either know Trump and think he’s harmless, or don’t know him but want the ratings, or want to avoid his bullying Twitter feed.
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When history books look back on this moment, they will not condemn the many Trump followers who wanted someone to fix Washington, who wanted someone to notice they were hurting, who wanted someone who didn’t look down on them.
Most of Trump’s supporters are people who are either sick of the BS of DC, or people who have been economically and culturally left behind and held in contempt.
History will not deem them unpatriotic.
But it will be a resounding rebuke to the media, who has stood by in trembling thrall to a growing monster.
Many of the most un-patriotic people in this country can be found on your morning news shows, your cable bobble heads, your apologetic editorialists who either know Trump and think he’s harmless, or don’t know him but want to stay out of his Twitter feed.
But they should ask themselves: at what point is pretending to be racist, pretending that dictators can be okay… at what point is that any different than actually being racist or actually admiring dictators!
There are ethnic and religious minorities who have to live in the neighborhoods and towns, amongst all those red-hat-wearing Trump supporters. And those minorities have to wonder if they are viewed only as abstractions of some larger point. Wonder if they are seen as “losers,” or some inhuman cog in the nexus keeping America from “winning.”
So to the media who enables Donald Trump:
Shame on you. All of you.
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Photo: Flickr/Adam Tas
I just saw SPOTLIGHT, and it reminded me that it’s find reporters that make good newspapers. That is when the publishers are not too biased. This was excellent reporting and we need so much more of it. This is an excellent article, and I’ve shared it everywhere, FB, Twitter, Pinterest, email to my friends.
I am a FAN of the Good Men Project.
Beverlee in Texas
Please forgive the misspelling. FINE reporters, not find…grrrre
Thank you for reading, Beverlee, and thank you so much for your kind words! I need to see Spotlight, especially since it just won Best Picture at the Oscars! 🙂 At any rate, I am greatly honored by the comparison.
Hi Richard, Thanks for reading! 🙂 And thank you for your response. Sanctuary cities are denounced by every presidential candidate on the Republican side. I believe what happened in SF happened because A) current President is a Democrat and B) SF is run by Democrats. So electing any Republican would change that circumstance. And I whole-heartedly agree that what happened to Kate was tragic, and that the murderer should never have been allowed free. Angry voters – I get that too. It’s good to point out here that Bernie Sanders represents an outlet for a lot of anger on the… Read more »
BTW, these articles about Trump has only pulled me closer to his side. Ya’ll have found so much about him that all I can think is that if the same effort was placed on ALL the candidates, we would more then likely fins as much. What you all doing is airing ALL his laundry which means when it comes down to it, we will truly know the man … can’t say that about other candidates.
Hi Tom, Thanks (again!) for reading my pieces. 🙂 I’m sorry to hear one of your facilities is closing. I know businesses (especially small businesses) have been hurt in this economy, and have been pinched by the ACA. My uncle just had to lay off many people in California. That’s the last thing any business owner wants, and he (you too, I’m sure) takes it personally. I think different economic policies are definitely in order, so I understand the appeal of Trump as a businessman (though he has had an extraordinary amount of businesses go under). But I think we… Read more »
“Most of Trump’s supporters are people who are either sick of the BS of DC, or people who have been economically and culturally left behind and held in contempt.” I’m undecided but I can see this.
Tired of DC and the BS … yeah, and given the fact that my company has announced the closing of one of our adolescent residential facilities, I can only thank the ACA for the great job its done.
Free healthcare is great IF you can get it. THANK YOU DC for screwing over countless kids.