Trump poses a terror danger. The press needs to say so
newsdepo.com
Donald Trump’s disgraceful response to the New Zealand mosque massacre, in which he downplayed the mounting threat posed by white global terrorists and spent the weekend legitimizing dangerous voices on the radical-right fringe, once again confirmed that hTrump poses a terror danger. The press needs to say so
Donald Trump’s disgraceful response to the New Zealand mosque massacre, in which he downplayed the mounting threat posed by white global terrorists and spent the weekend legitimizing dangerous voices on the radical-right fringe, once again confirmed that he poses a threat to U.S. security. It also proved that the press is still treating terrorism all wrong in this country. Trump and the GOP want Americans to think only Muslim terrorists pose a threat, not white men with guns committed to an eliminationist agenda. And the media plays along. Much of the press remains wedded to its previous, 9/11-era approach to terrorism coverage, where jihadists essentially defined terrorism in this country. As I noted last month, news that a black TV actor had been charged with faking the claim that he was the victim of a hate crime received five times more coverage than did the shocking news that a white nationalist lieutenant in the U.S. military had planned an assassination spree in order to spark a civil war and establish a «white homeland» in America. In fact, today a terrorist who isn't Muslim would have to kill seven more people to receive the same amount of news coverage as a Muslim gunman would, according to University of Alabama researcher Erin Kearns. That’s the 9/11 media legacy. But that deadly attack was 18 years ago, and the terror threats facing this country have completely changed. So, too, should the press coverage—and that should start with Trump and the danger he poses. Do I mean Trump himself will undertake some terror plot? Of course not. But he does pose a terror threat in the very real sense that he uses one of the largest and loudest platforms in the world—the United States presidency—to advance and embrace white nationalism and to send an unmistakable message that he supports its mission, while doing his best to dismiss the rising death toll that surrounds it. Read more