CNN allows Trump to televise campaign event lightly disguised as “objective journalism”

Always the dollars:

Shi argues in an op-ed that giving Trump this sort of platform normalizes and legitimates what Trump and Trumpism stand for:

Putting him onstage, having him answer questions like a normal candidate who didn’t get people killed in the process of trying to end the democracy he’s attempting to once again run, normalizes what Trump did. It sends a message that attempting a coup is just part of the process; that accepting election results is a choice; and that there are no consequences, in the media or in politics or anywhere else, for rejecting them.  

Trump is well aware of all that. Since his announcement that he was seeking the presidency for a third time, he has offered to pardon his insurrectionist supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, calling them “Patriots” and “Great Americans.” He has even incorporated recordings of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Justice for All” as sung by the J6 Prison Choir, a group of inmates imprisoned for their roles in the violent insurrection, into his rallies — giving these violent criminals a place of prominence in his campaign.

Then, this past March, Trump held a campaign event in Waco, Texas, on the 30-year anniversary of the armed siege there that took the lives of four special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In this not-so-subtle public display, Trump further embraced the anti-government violent extremist movement now spearheaded by groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and the Oath Keepers. Let’s never forget that Waco was preceded by Ruby Ridge (which took the life of a deputy U.S. marshal) and then followed by the Oklahoma City bombing. Three deadly events involving white supremacists and anti-government extremist groups armed to the teeth attacking law enforcement. Sound familiar? What American presidential candidate would want to be seen aligned with groups like these?

The old lawyer chestnut about never asking a witness a question to which you may not want to hear the answer very much applies here. What American presidential candidate would want to be seen aligned with groups like these? Answer: Any candidate who had any realistic hope of getting the Republican nomination.

While I agree that handing Trump this platform is disgraceful, especially 24 hours after he was found by a jury to have sexually assaulted a woman and then lied about that repeatedly, and especially given that it couldn’t be more obvious that this event is going forward on exactly the terms Trump demanded, the problem is much deeper.

This message — “attempting a coup is just part of the process; that accepting election results is a choice; and that there are no consequences, in the media or in politics or anywhere else, for rejecting them,” is the all but official position of the entire Republican party. Certainly Ron DeSantis, if we want to continue to pretend that he offers some sort of alternative to Trump, embraces this view, as must anyone else who hopes to become the nominee.

This is a reality that the Both Sides frame simply can’t accommodate, so either reality or the ruling establishment media frame has to go. For the CNNs of the world, that’s not even a choice, let alone a difficult one.