While rolling its eyes over the improbably resilient and so-far Teflon-coated Donald Trump campaign, the media might also look in a mirror.
Or just look at Friday’s Washington Post op-ed page. It’s got four Trump-related pieces.
There is the view among some, including Republican rivals who are walking on election eggshells around him, that ‘The Donald’ has tapped into a nerve of true voter dissatisfaction.
There is also the view of some, including several prominent political scientists, that his current popularity in polls largely reflects a mix of celebrity and media oversaturation.
And it’s not just his speed-dialing cable TV hosts and offering them instant, “exclusive” interviews for as long as he can chatter. No, it’s not merely the attention displayed by ratings-craven TV executives.
There is also the elite, and decidedly more sober print and digital media, who might know better.
At times, it’s as if they’re a teensy bit nervous about missing a popular bandwagon and “what everybody’s talking about.”
It’s all the more so in an era in which competitive pressures inspire anxiety about looking a bit musty, self-righteous or vaguely pedantic.
It’s a time when “audience engagement” strategies are properly pressing upon them. Even a bit of populist pandering can be rationalized by editor pointing to all the Important Work surrounding the pandering.
Whatever the journalistic motive, the political ramifications with Trump are self-evident, as the Post op-page personifies:
He’s sucking up most of the campaign oxygen so far.
