For (sort of) defending journalists as Trump attacks, thanks, governor, but no thanks
On Saturday morning, Idaho Gov. Brad Little tweeted the following:
“Our local journalists have worked tirelessly (through) this pandemic to provide the public with up-to-date and accurate information. Thank you for keeping Idaho informed!”
Reading that tweet, you might not know that it’s in response to something the national leader of his party did.
Late last week, a video of a group of anti-shutdown protesters in Long Island, New York, verbally abusing a local TV news reporter went viral when the reporter, Kevin Vesey, of TV News 12, posted the video on Twitter.
The raw video, at more than a minute-and-a-half, is disturbing, and not just because the vitriol was leveled at a journalist. If the anger and aggression had been targeting a doctor or a nurse or a sanitation worker or a librarian, it would have been equally disturbing.
The original video, viewed more than 16 million times, shows protesters aggressively coming at Vesey, giving him the middle finger, swearing at him, telling Vesey he’s “fake news,” “you are the enemy of the people,” “you are the virus,” “you’re a hack,” “you’re disgusting,” chants of and “fake news is not essential.” One sign read, “Hang Fauci.”
The protesters’ behavior was deplorable.
We talk about civility in politics. This was beyond that discussion. This kind of anger and aggression, frankly, is frightening.
President Trump decided to retweet the video Friday night with the message, “FAKE NEWS IS NOT ESSENTIAL!”
Just to make sure it didn’t get lost in the shuffle, President Trump retweeted it again Saturday morning and made his message a little clearer: “People can’t get enough of this. Great people!”
No, sir, these are not great people. This is not great behavior.
And then Trump retweeted it again Monday morning.
Just to be clear here, as of Monday morning, Little’s tweet was liked 3,300 times and retweeted 412 times. Trump’s “FAKE NEWS” retweet Friday had 116,000 likes and 32,000 retweets. His “Great people!” retweet had 99,500 likes and 28,200 retweets.
The president of the United States, unsurprisingly, is encouraging his followers to harass journalists while reporters are out doing their jobs.
Ironically, Vesey was there trying to get their side of the story. He got it all right.
And what are local journalists being accused of doing? We’re reporting what government officials and health experts are reporting about the spread of coronavirus.
The United States is up to 1.5 million cases and 91,000 coronavirus deaths as of May 18, 2020, and that’s even with stay-home efforts.
After Little tweeted his support for local journalists, as could be expected, local journalists thanked him and praised his leadership. Little even got a shout-out from CNN’s Brian Stelter.
I do appreciate Gov. Little’s support for local journalists, especially since local journalists at times have criticized the governor.
But is it really enough?
The leader of the Republican Party is encouraging this behavior to his millions and millions of followers. Does anyone really think that Gov. Little’s nice tweet would somehow counterbalance that or actually discourage people in Idaho from doing the same as those “great people” in Long Island?
To me, it’s just another convenient way to straddle the fence, to say, “Oh, that’s not me; I’m not like that,” without actually condemning the actions with which you disagree.
It’s not enough to just say, “I’m a nice person, really I am,” but then say nothing about your party’s leader.
It’s like standing by while the schoolyard bully beats up some kid on the playground, but then coming up to the kid later and saying, “Hey, I’m not beating you up.”
It’s well past time for the Republican Party, including our federal delegation — Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, and Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher — to say enough, the president is wrong to rile up this behavior. It’s dangerous. It’s bad for America. We have to put an end to it.
So forgive me for not singing Gov. Little’s praises too much because he tweeted his support for local journalists.
Only until he stands up to the schoolyard bully in his own party will I thank him.
