How (Not) to Cover Trump’s Indictment

On the Media

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump is the first ever president to be charged with criminal activity. And leading up to his arraignment, cable news has dug in, breathlessly tracing his every movement — his jet touching down in LaGuardia, his short journey from Trump Tower to the courthouse, and even his expressions and body language inside the courtroom. TV news hosts left no detail unturned, offering up 24/7, wall-to-wall coverage. According to Alex Shephard, staff writer at The New Republic, the coverage saw media outlets stumbling back into some of its "worst habits." In this week's podcast, Shephard tells Brooke about what reporters missed about the indictment.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
0:05.0	A grand jury here in New York City has just handed up an indictment against former President Donald Trump.
0:11.0	An unprecedented day in American history. Former President Donald Trump arrested and arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom.
0:19.0	The first US President to face criminal charges.
0:22.0	Former President Donald J. Trump outraged and defiant.
0:26.0	Last Tuesday, Donald Trump was arrested and cable news dug in.
0:31.0	Retlessly tracing his every movement. His jet touching down in LaGuardia.
0:36.0	His short journey from Trump tower to the courthouse.
0:39.0	And inside the courthouse, the news hosts left no detail unremarked upon.
0:46.0	There is a President, former President Trump, exiting the courtroom.
0:50.0	Let's see what's just watch and take in the scene.
0:53.0	He has obviously exited our view moving down a hallway or corridor to his left, our right.
1:02.0	Oh, he's gone into the courtroom now, we're told.
1:04.0	Alex Shepherd, staff writer at the New Republic, has covered Trump for nearly eight years.
1:10.0	He says that the coverage around Trump's indictment found the media stumbling back into some of its own worst habits.
1:18.0	So what bothered him the most?
1:22.0	Probably just this year, banality of it.
1:25.0	I think we were stuck with close to a paradox.
1:28.0	The indictment itself is undeniably historic.
1:31.0	Nothing like this had ever happened before in American history.
1:35.0	It deserved some form of serious and grand, ill-equent coverage.
1:40.0	Maybe even wall-to-wall coverage to some extent.
	...

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