After the horrible assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump, President Biden spoke eloquently Sunday about the need to lower the temperature, to renounce violence and to engage in peaceful political debate. “There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” he implored viewers. “We can’t allow this violence to be normalized. … It’s time to cool it down. And we all have a responsibility to do that.” He nevertheless stressed the need for vigorous debate.
His admonition might have been to politicians and voters, but the media should pay close attention as well. The constant focus on polling and predicting (almost invariably incorrectly) the implications of unprecedented events only makes the media look small, unserious and irrelevant in a historic test of our democracy. Hysterical predictions and nonstop handicapping misunderstand the public’s perception of politics. (Hence, such reports are often met with a yawn by average voters and without any appreciable movement in polls.) Worse, such jabber crowds out essential coverage of genuine threats to democracy and the visions of the two parties.
Instead, the shooting at the Trump rally in Butler, Pa., should prompt the media to raise the level of discourse and reembrace the mission of journalism: to inform the citizenry about critical issues.
