WASHINGTON — There’s a simple rule for political journalists: don’t ever take anything personally — especially when it’s coming from Donald Trump.
Trump has lashed out at the media for months, calling reporters “dishonest,” “scum” and, this week, “sleaze.”
At his rallies, the billionaire urges the audience to boo the press corps, making a point of calling out reporters and cameras that are confined to a media pen and have no way to respond.
It doesn’t matter, because the questions keep on coming.
READ MORE: Donald Trump details millions in fundraising for veterans
But for a candidate who loves the art of exaggeration, and the occasional bold-faced lie, it’s still a brilliant strategy.
By creating the impression of a war with the press, Trump is trying to inoculate himself from whatever they might dig up.
Trump can now easily convince his supporters that any negative story about him is a lie, or at the very least part of some conspiracy to discredit his campaign.
It doesn’t matter how valid the questions are, Trump just has to raise enough doubt about the reporters asking them to bring the whole story into question. It leaves the media in a tough spot.
READ MORE: Donald Trump endorsed as ‘wise politician’ by North Korean media
Reporters can’t let Trump’s accusations influence their work, lest they actually tread into the territory of bias. They don’t have any real way to respond, because that’s not their job.
That’s Trump’s whole strategy – picking a fight with someone who won’t fight back.
It’s unfamiliar ground for most reporters covering a presidential campaign, but Trump is hardly the first politician to try this tactic.
Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford made a war with the press a talking point at the height of his crack cocaine scandal. He would deflect questions, instead of entertaining them.
After asking a tough question about the police investigation into the mayor’s alleged drug and gang connections, I was lambasted as being “as biased as they come” on live TV by the mayor’s brother, Doug Ford.
Doug couldn’t help but remind anyone watching at home that he was speaking about “Jackson Proskow from Global.”
READ MORE: There’s no bias in asking a tough question: Proskow
Similarly, when Trump called a reporter “sleaze” this week, he made sure the live audience knew he was referring to ABC correspondent Tom Llamas.
Rob Ford called the media “a bunch of maggots,” on his radio show, while Doug proclaimed “you guys lie through your teeth!”
It actually worked to an extent.
Reporters watched the hate mail pile up from Rob Ford’s supporters. I remember once being yelled at in a grocery store by a viewer who was adamant that I “leave the mayor alone!”
Of course the mayor’s detractors urged us to keep digging – which we did not out of dislike for the mayor, but because the facts lead us to.
In the end, history is on the side of those who asked the tough questions Toronto’s one-time mayor didn’t want to answer.
Trump now faces a similar storm as questions swirl about Trump University, or his untested and often contradictory foreign policy ideas.
READ MORE: Hillary Clinton slams Trump University as a ‘scheme’ to prey on the poor
What the Trump campaign already knows is that demonizing the press will only get them so far.
It may firm up supporters, but it’s not a strategy that will win over new votes. In a presidential campaign in particular, the stakes are just too high.
Journalism in the United States has a long history of rigorous scrutiny for anyone seeking the Oval Office.
Reporters can and will dig up anything, and candidates are subjected to intense vetting by their parties for this very reason.
It’s something voters have come to expect.
Not even a candidate as unconventional as Trump can expect to sidestep that process, no matter what he really thinks of the press.
So, ignore that angry response to a question. Brush aside the fact that you’re being mocked by the politician you’re covering. Press on, knowing that politician could be the next president of the United States.
Comments