Former Washington Post editor Leonard Downie recently released a new book called All About the Story: News, Power, Politics and the Washington Post. In it, he makes some strong statements about the state of the media, the president, and the way the two institutions interact in 2020.
The evolution of Presidential media coverage has changed the way the Trump administration is covered. That isn’t to say the media is unfair to the president necessarily. Downie notes he clashed with ith the Clinton administration over Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs. He also said he faced pushback for the paper’s coverage of the Bush administration’s runup to the Iraq war. But he calls President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media “absolutely unprecedented.”
“All presidents have not always told the truth. Empirically, it appears to me there’s much more falsity from this president and the administration.”
The idea that the media is somehow broken or not doing its job depends on your political persuasion and what media you’re consuming, Downie says. He does note that he believes reporters have been compromised by the way stories are covered on television.
“It’s lucrative for outstanding news reporters to appear on TV,” Downie tells Fox. “Even if they are not stating opinions themselves, they’re in those boxes on panels with people that are stating opinions.
He also criticized platforms like Twitter for the way it tempts and rewards reporters.
“I don’t like that people who are fact-finding newspaper reporters are expressing opinions in any venue, including on Twitter,” he says.
