Ep. 16 - How to report on Trump, w/ Richard Tofel
Richard Tofel, the former president of ProPublica, a Wall Street Journal veteran and former longtime media lawyer, offers some grounding on what to make of our current media environment
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We already know this
has guided both groundbreaking and grounded news coverage for years, from the Wall Street Journal to ProPublica and has been continuing that work, often running counter against the screamfest of social media and cable news, at his Substack, Second Rough Draft. He penned a recent piece there with clear and important advice for reporters now covering the 10th year of Donald Trump dominating national politics: stop covering every wild comment and start writing about his actions.
“Trump has said there are going to be mass deportations. Everyone in the country knows that, he’s said that, I don’t think that that is news when he says that again, I don’t think that is news when Homan says that again. So I don’t think you need to say, ‘Trump said today for the 433rd time that there are going to be mass deportations.’” Tofel told us in Episode 16 of The Ground Game Pod. “I do think the key to covering this is, starting next week when he becomes president again, is are there going to be, by historical standards, mass deportations?”
Be sure to watch the full episode, Patrick and I walk through what to expect in the Trump nomination battles, the latest with Democratic tactics and more at the top of the show. Also, how to report on a friggin’ freezing inauguration.
Then we get to our interview with Tofel: If you’re going to write on Canada comments, include that it would make the U.S. government vastly more liberal and include the numbers; stories about Trump need nut grafs, and if there’s no nut graf explaining the importance of the story, then there is no story; Jeff Bezos effectively personally paying Melania Trump millions of dollars via the Amazon documentary, and more.
Show notes
Four Downs:
VP-elect J.D. Vance says the January 6th pardons won’t be that sweeping, then he says they will
How will Dems handle the confirmation battles?
L.A. is on fire, and the politics of it doesn’t seem to be helping anyone there
How will the coming trade wars hit your wallet?
Huddle Up:
Legacy media’s demise is overstated. Our most influential news organizations remain so, but the challenges have only gotten tougher. Ad-supported mass media is struggling and the rise of creators and new media has surged
Living off clicks is a short-term fix news organizations.
Ok, so take Trump seriously when he says he wants to annex Canada. What does that actually mean? If somehow, Canada were to merge with the U.S., it would add an incredible number of left-
“If you want to take that seriously in one article, lay out what I just said … the new United States Senate would be roughly 63 Democrats and 57 Republicans, Ontario would be the fourth largest state in the union, the smallest Canadian province would be larger than nine American states.”
“Obviously, I would recommend zero articles”
“If you’re not going to take it seriously then move along, the country has lots of serious problems and we don’t need to be discussing non-serious problems.”
What of mass deportations, should the media not cover this until
It’s not news when Trump says “for the 433rd time” there will be mass deportations. The key is what counts as historical?
“The president who deported the most people in our history was Obama.”
“Only when Trump starts to lay out, and starts to execute, a plan that shows him deporting more people than Obama than we could say … If he deported 50,000 criminals, that is not mass deportation.”
“50,000 is 1/40 of the 2 million people, and it is not good
Journalists need nut grafs,
“Maybe, if you don’t have a nut graf, Tom, you oughta spike the story”
The nut graf is high up in the story and explains why it is important to people — why should you care about this story? It puts news in perspective and
Homan said last week they didn’t have the resources or money to conduct true mass deportations
On the creation the short-lived Business Insider Washington Bureau, the drop in audience and new paying subscribers concurrent with audience tiring of Trump tirades
Is the legacy media losing its backbone and capitulating to Trump?
The capitulation critique is overstated.
“At one extreme is the publisher of the Los Angeles Times … which is upsetting and concerning. … On the other hand, the ABC settlement, and I wrote about this in the Columbia Journalism Review, is quite likely a different thing. … ABC’s team may know about evidence that undermines their case.”
At The Washington Post the editorial endorsement was very poorly handled.
“This Melania Trump documentary essentially amounts to Jeff Bezos paying Mrs. Trump millions of dollars personally”
“Is Jeff Bezos still a viable owner of The Washington Post?”
And more. Be sure to watch the whole show, like, comment, share with your friends and subscribe.
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Excellent overview! I would add - full disclosure: I am NOT a journalist - real-time fact checking … especially when a Trump outburst is so blatantly false. Example: His statement about Gavin Newsome’s “Water Restoration Declaration”—an easy Google should have shown that Declaration non-existent.