Anonymous Nation: America’s Papers of Record Have Turned into Tabloids
According to the Washington Post‘s Glenn Kessler, an exultant cheer went up in his newsroom on Monday when web traffic for the Post’s latest anti-Trump salvo surpassed that of its last big hit, the Access Hollywood tape. “Blood lust” was how the Drudge Report described the scene. And appropriately, this new story of President Trump inappropriately disclosing secrets of intelligence gathering was, like the Access Hollywood scoop, an anonymously sourced hit. We have arrived in an era where anonymous attacks form the bedrock of Washington correspondence — even when principled government officials come forward and strenuously assert that the reporting isn’t true.
So are we reading the Washington Post, or Us Weekly? In our world turned upside down, Washington DC has gone tabloid.
Donald Trump made a name for himself in part by regularly appearing on the cover of New York City tabloids in the 1980s and 1990s. Fast forward to 2017, and the guy is now president, still appearing on the cover of various grocery store check-out scandal sheets — like the New York Times and the Washington Post. Journalists from these institutions conduct their reporting like they’re covering Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce. If we believed Star magazine every time they reported childless Jennifer Aniston was pregnant in her late 40s, she’d have a bigger brood than her ex-husband Brad. And if we believed the Washington Post today, our president’s braggadocio is ushering in the Apocalypse.
According to the Washington Post‘s Glenn Kessler, an exultant cheer went up in his newsroom on Monday when web traffic for the Post’s latest anti-Trump salvo surpassed that of its last big hit, the Access Hollywood tape. “Blood lust” was how the Drudge Report described the scene. And appropriately, this new story of President Trump inappropriately disclosing secrets of intelligence gathering was, like the Access Hollywood scoop, an anonymously sourced hit. We have arrived in an era where anonymous attacks form the bedrock of Washington correspondence — even when principled government officials come forward and strenuously assert that the reporting isn’t true.
So are we reading the Washington Post, or Us Weekly? In our world turned upside down, Washington DC has gone tabloid.
Donald Trump made a name for himself in part by regularly appearing on the cover of New York City tabloids in the 1980s and 1990s. Fast forward to 2017, and the guy is now president, still appearing on the cover of various grocery store check-out scandal sheets — like the New York Times and the Washington Post. Journalists from these institutions conduct their reporting like they’re covering Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce. If we believed Star magazine every time they reported childless Jennifer Aniston was pregnant in her late 40s, she’d have a bigger brood than her ex-husband Brad. And if we believed the Washington Post today, our president’s braggadocio is ushering in the Apocalypse.
