His warning may have been aimed at politicians and voters, but the media should pay close attention as well. The constant focus on polls and predictions (which are almost always wrong) about the impact of unprecedented events only makes the media look small, disingenuous, and irrelevant in this historic test of our democracy. Hysterical predictions and constant handicaps misread the public’s perception of politics. (And so such coverage often only elicits yawns from the average voter, without any notable movement in the polls.) Worse yet, such chatter crowds out important reporting about the real threats to democracy and the visions of the two political parties.
Instead, the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, “The media should be encouraged to raise the level of debate and re-embrace the mission of journalism: to inform the public on important issues. Scoring Trump’s speeches in terms of style and praising his audience-pleasing techniques rather than highlighting his efforts to subvert democratic norms does not help create an informed electorate. Rather, it obscures the essential argument that, based on the record and the Republican Party’s avowed policy aspirations, this campaign poses a danger to our constitutional system.”
Responsible media coverage should focus on several important topics. First, the shooting should be placed in the context of our intolerable gun culture. As a former classmate of the shooter has pointed out, high school students live in fear of mass shootings by their classmates. Tough questions about the shooter’s access to weapons of war, age restrictions on such weapons, and of course Republican resistance to restricting access to such weapons, are topics that should be covered. Responsible media should press Republicans to explain their assertion that “all it takes is a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun.” In this case, the shooting was not stopped by a large number of highly armed law enforcement officers.
Second, media outlets have a duty to carefully investigate the rise in political violence and violent rhetoric that preceded it. On Sunday, Biden told the American people: “Violence has never been the answer, not when members of both parties were targeted, not when the mob stormed the Capitol on January 6th, not when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s spouse was brutally attacked, not when we tipped off and intimidated election officials, not when we tried to kidnap a sitting governor, not when we tried to assassinate Donald Trump.” After the shooting, many Republicans pointed to the rhetoric of some Democrats, apparently trying to stifle criticism of Trump’s undermining of democracy. But it is not inappropriate, but rather essential, to report on the actions and rhetoric of Trump and his supporters before the shooting.
The horror of the shooting should not prevent the media from examining the role Trump has played in the corruption of our political discourse. The media should pressure Trump and Republicans to explain (and renounce) the story of the televised military tribunal against committee members on January 6 and the execution threats of the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump’s newly announced running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), also deserves scrutiny for his unfounded accusation on Saturday that the shooting was “not just an isolated incident.”
Third, the case should refocus attention on the candidates’ policy proposals. Biden on Friday reiterated his call for a ban on semi-automatic rifles. The Heritage Foundation’s influential Project 2025 has floated ideas like rounding up 11 million illegal immigrants and using the military to quell dissent. What would be the impact on public safety and domestic stability? Talk of retaliation against enemies raises concerns about prosecutorial independence, which Trump subverted in his first term. As Attorney General Merrick Garland pointed out, demonizing the FBI has certainly had tragic consequences.
Finally, the Secret Service deserves a thorough investigation. “Under scrutiny for its worst security breach since the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, the Secret Service is being forced to decide whether it devoted sufficient resources to protecting the former president-turned-presidential nominee,” reports The Washington Post. “Among the questions Secret Service officials want answered, according to one senior official, is whether there were significant communications failures with local police in Butler, Pennsylvania, who were guarding the perimeter where the gunman was stationed on the roof of a nearby building.” As Carol D. Leonnig has documented, the Secret Service has been plagued by a long history of scandals and missteps. After each incident, coverage fades and the media moves on to another. After a scandal of this magnitude, it is essential to keep our attention focused.
In short, this horrific incident should serve as an opportunity for a media reset: Let’s set aside the unhelpful and persistent speculation about how the shooting happened. It may affect the election. Instead, we should focus with renewed zeal on guns, political violence, the candidates’ policy plans, and the deplorable state of the Secret Service. It is time for the media to step up and stand up in a moment of extreme crisis for our democracy.
