Every now and then a nugget of gold is presented by MSNBC, and it happened with Ana Marie Cox’s appearance on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on 2/15/17. I do not have the video link, but I have the transcript of Cox’s interesting proposal for the Media to essentially stop covering Trump. Keep in mind this was after Trump took some softball questions from the likes of a CBN reporter but ignored a shouted question about Russia from another reporter.
MELBER: Pay no attention to the reporters in the room. Joining me Ana
Marie Cox, Senior Political Correspondent and Jamil Smith back with us.
Ana, what do you make of this approach to press denial?
ANA MARIE COX, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, I think in my
ideal world, I would say two can play in that game. I mean I`d stop sending
people to the Whitehouse if I was I mean or make it a more concerted
effort. I mean the one thing we know Trump hates is being ignored.
MELBER: That would be a victory then. Then they would have daily calls
and gateway funded and only those questions.
COX: Right. Would that be a victory? I mean if they`re not going to call
on the times anyway, if they`re not going to call on the more traditional
journalists anyway, why are they there? I mean wouldn`t it be better to
deprive him of oxygen? I mean that`s – because that`s like that`s what
happening, right? And I mean in general he is going to lie to us. Like why
–
MELBER: Let me push you on that.
COX: Go ahead.
MELBER: Because I`m not fake Tv arguing with you. I`m really arguing. I
mean there is a certain amount of coverage the leader of the free world is
going to get, whether people are in the room or not.
COX: Right.
MELBER: So The New York Times is going to write about what the President
says whether they have a reporter in the room or not. The idea as we just
shown is that at times having people in the room at least puts the question
to the President. He ignores it and the world at least can see on tape the
type of questions he is ignoring. You can`t literally make him talk but –
COX: Yes, I mean I think that`s what is going to happen. And I`m not
opposed to that. But I guess I`m trying to think outside the box because
we have a president that is very much not in the box. You know? I mean
like we are through the looking glass with what kinds of things that this
guy gets away with and what kinds of things he tries to get away with.
And part of me feels like we have to take some – we might try taking some
rather radical steps. I mean I`m not sure if traditional journalism is
going to work in terms of like keeping tabs on this guy. I mean I think in
general, maybe the thing we need – the scoops that are coming out of the
White House are not coming out of, you know, people being on the ground in
the room with Donald Trump. They`re coming out of people who are knocking
on doors and making phone calls without Donald Trump in the room.
So, I mean those are the stories we still need to have. Like I just don`t
know how much – I don`t know how useful Donald Trump is. I mean on many
different levels I`m not sure how useful he is.
At least Ana Marie is bringing this topic up. I know that I am not the only one who feels it is useless for reporters to have their interviews with Trump and his supporters. Even if a reporter is diligent and calls Trump out for one of his many lies, the guy erupts into a volcano of lies that overwhelms anyone in his path. Trump’s surrogates do the samn damn thing.
We on the left know that Trump is a pathological liar. And people who work for Trump are going to have to defend his lies and tell more lies in the process. So what is there new to learn?
Trump supporters are never going to watch “The Rachel Maddow Show” or “The Last Word.” And even if by some miracle they saw a snippet of Trump or one of his minions in a demonstrable lie, they will not believe it is true. And as Trevor Noah pointed out, Trump’s lies are easily disprovable. In his words, “They are first page Googleable” ways to show Trump is lying.
But I believe that Ana Marie is stating what a few other journalists have said. Journalists are going to have to go out and hit the pavement to find stories about what Trump is really doing. This means obtaining midlevel sources on what Trump and the Republicans are actually doing on policy matters.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with the rest of the folks on here.