The Campaign Press Corps Needs to Rediscover Its Inner Cynic

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


For the past several months, the press—and sadly, I suppose I have to include myself in this—has demonstrated an eager willingness to chatter away about literally anything Donald Trump says. Trump’s MO is pretty simple: say ridiculous stuff, but say it with utter confidence. If any other politician said the kinds of things he said, reporters would take it as obvious—and fairly desperate—spin. But Trump’s apparently total belief in what he says causes reporters to shed their years of well-earned cynicism and write with an almost wide-eyed fascination.

This is sort of inexplicable. It’s as if campaign reporters have never encountered a top-notch salesman outside the world of politics. Good sales people aren’t slick and oily, folks. They aren’t the ones who sell used cars—that’s for penny-ante sales people. The really good ones go after much bigger game. They speak with total confidence, they appear to believe everything they say, and they have the gift of seeming completely truthful. Trump is one of the best, and he doesn’t try to hide it. He’s written whole books about it. He’s proud of his ability to snooker folks, and he brags about it openly if you ask him.

But no matter. Say it with enough brio and the marks will come running.

This has been obvious for a long time, so why bring it up now? Because apparently Trump has finally trained an acolyte. A few months ago he hired Paul Manafort to run his delegate operation, but that job is no longer necessary now that he’s wrapped up the nomination. So these days Manafort plays some kind of vague role in the Trump campaign that will probably get sorted out eventually when all the current infighting is over. Yesterday he gave an interview to Howard Fineman, and Manafort sounded just like the master himself. It was endless spin delivered with absolute, utter confidence regardless of how ridiculous it was.

And as near as I can tell, Fineman bought it. There’s barely a hint of cynicism, barely a nod to the possibility that Manafort is just delivering garden variety political spin. “Manafort’s sunny vision may be a little skewed,” Fineman says, arousing hope that he does see through Manafort’s charade, but no: “Having made millions as an image crafter for foreign tyrants, he can’t help but see Trump as an easy lift by comparison.” See? The guy’s just calling them as he sees them!

This is all bad enough, but there’s more: as near as I can tell, Fineman’s interview generated as much chatter as an interview with Trump himself—most of it taking Manafort at face value. So now we have two master salesmen who can generate endless chatter just by delivering ordinary spin and making it sound like something more.

I dunno. Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe this was just a standard bit of beat sweetening, and nothing to get bothered about. But I’m bothered anyway. Trump is a master salesman, and the same reporters who routinely get suckered by Silicon Valley “visionaries” seem to be getting suckered not just by Trump anymore, but by Trump’s minions as well. Where’s the cynicism, folks?

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate