by Jason Cohen
Democratic strategist James Carville on Thursday advocated for media outlets to boost their biased coverage of former President Donald Trump to help ensure he does not win the upcoming presidential election.
The New York Times’ executive editor Joe Kahn in May told Semafor his publication’s duty is to cover what Americans care about rather than what benefits President Joe Biden and hurts Trump. Carville on the “Politics War Room” took issue with this approach, saying that because of the stakes of the election, media outlets should take a more active role in advocating against Trump and people aligned with him instead of seeking to be objective.
“So this is the basic question,” Carville said. “People say Trump is going to be the Republican nominee and we got to cover it, and Biden’s the Democratic nominee and we cover this. And if there’s something bad about Biden, of course, we’ve got to print it. But if something comes up that is, can’t say good about Trump but more favorable to him, like the Elie Honigs and the Fareed Zakarias of the world, that’s one way to look at it. We just tell the truth and let the people decide. Or, at times when the country is in great peril or the moral imperative is so significant, you don’t do that.”
“Now you have Joe Kahn, the new editor or publisher, whatever he is at The New York Times, saying, ‘We’re just going to cover this down the middle. We’re going to cover what it is.’ I don’t think that’s the role of the news media at a time when the entire Constitution is in peril,” Carville continued. “I don’t have anything against slanted coverage. I really don’t … I would have something against it at most other times in American history, but not right now. Fuck your objectivity. The real objectivity in this country right now is we’re either going to have a Constitution or we’re not.”
Politico previously reported on a feud brewing between the NYT and the Biden White House over the outlet’s coverage of the president and his administration. Certain aides close to the president reportedly see the upcoming presidential election as “an existential choice for the country” and have urged officials to criticize the NYT’s coverage.
“Everything else, from Hunter Biden’s gun application to Judge Merchan’s, I don’t know, $35 contribution to all of the bullshit that the professional center feels like they got to put out,” Carville said. “I can’t tell you that these are bad people. They’re extremely naive people who have no idea what’s at stake in this election. So I think we need slanted coverage, more slanted coverage and I think we got to recognize the threat that this guy and the MAGA, not just him, the entire MAGA movement, from Alito and Trump on down is a serious, clear and present danger to the existence of the Constitution in the United States. And I mean that.”
Carville’s cohost Al Hunt, who previously was reporter, bureau chief, and executive Washington editor at The Wall Street Journal, disagreed with his the Democratic strategist calling for “slanted” coverage, but his cohost doubled down on it.
“James, the only thing I would reject was the term ‘slanted.’ I think we need fair coverage and not false equivalency,” Hunt said. “And it was over 70 years ago that one of the greatest journalists in America, Wallace Carroll, later became Reston’s Deputy in The New York Times Washington Bureau and the publisher of the Winston-Salem Journal, said that it is a mistake for journalism to be imprisoned by objectivity. That was during the McCarthy era. It’s even more true today.”
“Yeah, I guess, ‘slanted’ … I’ll stick with that. But this is not ‘but on the other hand’ coverage, alright? One is, kind of old guy’s probably lost a step against a a career criminal who would end the Constitution. That’s not a fight you want to be down the middle on,” Carville said.
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Jason Cohen is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “James Carville” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
