WaPo media columnist offers ‘prescription’ for how to cover ‘threats to democracy’ in final op-ed

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, in her latest op-ed for the newspaper on Sunday, suggested that Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid could jeopardize democracy.

Sullivan noted how she was asked about media coverage of “threats to democracy” after announcing her resignation. Claiming she’s alternated between “encouraged” and “desperate,” she admitted the possibility of Trump running for president again in 2024 “will be a real test for the reality-based press.”

“I am often reminded of the troubling questions ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked in multiple interviews late last year about what it would mean to cover Trump if and when he runs for president again. He considered this to be perhaps the greatest challenge American political reporters will face,” Sullivan said.

Various media outlets and Democrats have urged journalists to abandon “mutualism” when reporting on politicians working to defend “democracy.” While Sullivan didn’t urge journalists to support Trump’s “rivals,” she lauded efforts to reshape talks about the former president and other allies.

TRUMP’S ‘HOOTEST CRITIC’ GUILTY OF VIOLATION OF THE NORMS THEY TEACH HIM: JARED KUSHNER

“The media has come a long, long way trying to figure out how to report on the democracy-threatening ways of Donald Trump and his allies, including his staunch right-wing media supporters. It is now common to see headlines and stories that clearly refer to some politicians as ‘election deniers,’ and journalists far less reluctant to use the blunt and clarifying word ‘lie’ to describe Trump’s false statements,” wrote Sullivan.

As another example, she cited recent coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ announcement that 20 people had been charged with voter fraud in his state, and how media should cover issues with “lots of context and thoughtful framework.”

As Kate Pickert, director of Loyola Marymount’s journalism program, noted last week, AP’s Twitter news alert took DeSantis’ hyperventilating press conference at face value and offered the kind of treatment the governor himself might have written: ‘Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis announced criminal charges against 20 people for illegal voting in 2020, the first major public move by the Republican’s controversial new election police unit. While the New York Times tweet broke through the noise (I added the italics): “Gov. Ron DeSantis said 17 people have been accused of illegally casting ballots in the 2020 election, where 11.1 million Floridians voted. There is no evidence that electoral crime is a serious problem in Florida or elsewhere in the US,'” Sullivan explained.

PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS ‘BLIND’ TO HUMAN TRAGEDY CAUSED BY ABORTION RESTRICTIONS: WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD

She added: “So my recipe – and this is just a start – is less live campaign coverage, more context and thoughtful framing, and more fearless direct conversations from news leaders about what’s at stake and why the policy coverage looks different .”

Ahead of the Jan. 6 anniversary, Sullivan previously pleaded for media organizations to put a “new focus” on encouraging more “pro-democracy” reporting before it was “too late.” While media organizations have improved and The Post has since created a “democracy team,” she worries “it’s not nearly enough.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

She warned: “The deeper question is whether news organizations can break free from their hidden practices — love of political conflict, obsession with elections as horse racing — to effectively address these concerns. For the sake of democracy they have to.”