Memo to North American media news rooms, editors and publishers, May 20, 2025

 As the adage puts it, the world has changed….and not for ‘the better’….and the old journalism will only inescapably and inevitably fall into the trap of the basic principles, practices and perceptions that were applicable, and taught as ‘essential’ to all those who have already graduated from Journalism schools.

A glaring example comes from the well-researched and credible and authoritative book on the ‘Biden cover-up by Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios.

Arguing that the media was lied to by the Biden White house, to protect the former President from having to acknowledge publicly his state of physical and cognitive health, is a premise that few can or will dispute. And, from the perspective of the history of the United States, there might well have been a different result from the election of 2024, had Kamala Harris been afforded the normal, requisite time to mount a successful campaign against the eventual winner.

However, even from a perch north of the 49^th parallel, no matter which American network one chooses, and no matter what time of day or night, the copy and the interviews are totally and ponderously, as well as almost excitedly, filled to overflowing with trump----whatever…..He has effectively, and single-handedly, taken over the American airwaves, and the editorial justification has to be something like, ‘he is the president, and the president has to be covered because whatever he says or does is historic.’

And while there is legitimacy to that argument and position, and editorial lens, there is another perspective that warrants a very different perspective. Rachel Maddow, for example, spends most of her Monday night broadcasts documenting the millions of Americans who are protesting daily in every state, against the president and his administration. And while highly honourable and justified, and a worthy beginning of support for the national project to depose this president and his admisistration, it is only a small first step.

Here are some thoughts, albeit somewhat pretentious coming as they do from a Canadian who should never offer suggestions to any of the behemoths of the American journalism enterprise, that might offer a ‘northern’ and somewhat ‘colder; and ‘detached’ perspective on the current existential crisis….and it is a crisis not only for American but for the whole world:

Proposed from the perspective of this ‘moment’ is both an existential crisis, and also an epic opportunity to ‘broaden and deepen’ the American audience not only to the details of what has constituted news (high interest man-biting-dog ironies, and lawyers chasing ambulances, and fires, floods and hurricanes and droughts) to a more insightful, research-based, and digested and curated language and packaging (program design and delivery)….

These ideas, which would require considerable adjustment both to the operating premises of the journalistic fraternity and sorority, and would begin to move the American perspective from the ‘micro-facts to the macro-meanings, elevate the local and regional to the national consciousness, integrate the world into the American ‘screens’ as well as into the American consciousness and perspective, and begin to move the culture away from the fixated addiction and obsession with all things economic, fiscal, monetary, financial and corporatist…as well as parochial, divisive, zero-sum-competitive, and both literal and empirical….into a more imaginative, more speculative, more tolerant and collaborative, as well as more conscious of the relative significance of the American weaknesses and blindnesses, as well as the American leadership….and not exclusively that of the current president and administration.

The intersection of a broad range of both ideas and information is one of the most potentially potent arrows in the quiver of the American people, and taking both the focus and the conversation, and the thinking away from the current Oval Office, while not ignoring how damaging ignorance to those scurrilous and heinous motives and initiatives continue to be, is one available avenue for public ‘orientation’ to take advantage of this conundrum.

More specific suggestions:

Is there a way to precis, edit, curate, and simply ‘bullet’ the trump-tsunami, into a once-a-day 30-minute package, that both reduces his personal domination of your media, while also conveying the essential and invasive components and implications of his admittedly ‘deconstruction’ of the nation state. And such a 30-minute package could be followed by another 30-minute package of responsible, and even balanced critique and review of the initial package.

Such a 60-minute ‘duet’ could be scheduled at a time when it would bring in both the projected largest Neilson ratings as well as the maximum advertising revenue.The rest of the cable news networks’ airtime could then be dedicated to the news of the world, embracing details from the major capitals of the world, the latest new-worthy evidence of the state of the global environment and any new protective and preventive interventions as well as any new evidence of growing risk and danger, the state of race relations with details from every state in the union, the detailed risks and accomplishments of the individual state boards of education and their students’ and teachers’ achievements, as well as new risks such as ‘safety and security risks to both students and teachers, the implications of judicial entropy from both the state and national levels, the best reviews of the latest movies and both television and stage productions, the latest fashions in home design, male and female wardrobe changes, and a scholarly examination of the gestalt of American cultural, not only from the perspective of law enforcement challenges, specific horrific incidents, and the economic trend-marks such as the job reports, the GDP, inflation news and market analysis.

In Canada, too, the fixation on the ‘trump’ ubiquity and cancerous implications needs to be moderated by reducing the size and the frequency of the editorial prescriptions of trumpicity. And such reductions can only come from the news editors and directors and the executives that continue to be beholden to both journalistic models that do not ‘fit’ these circumstances, and also the advertisers’ cheques on which networks continue to depend.

Trimming the verbal, exposure, dominance ‘wings’ of this current malevolent and nefarious monster, is neither an easy nor a matter that can be left to chance, nor to his monumental and scurrilous 24-7-365 rants.

When the words, ‘we are all in this together’ are uttered, the news media has to hear them as directly and indirectly applying to their megaphones….and rather than insult, expose and litigate all of the malfeasance, trim its volume, its ubiquity, its supremacy and its cancerous impact…..

In the long run, all national media outlets, especially those dedicated to ‘all news’ will find both their ratings their revenue dropping as they continue to saturate their air-time with trump….and, while there will be a transitional, adjustment period of shifting away from trump-every-hour-every-moment-every-day,  the long-term impact and goal is to right the ship both of ‘state’ and the media whose interests have to be calculated in the best interest of the long-term-survival of the public square.

This is not an argument, as it will inevitably be considered, to constrict the ‘freedom of speech’ one of the idols at which the administration worships, unless and until that speech is determined to be offensive, and even dangerous to the national interest…..it is a memo to engage in the universal process that haunts every single self-respecting  citizen in North American to respond to the question:

What can I do to help eviscerate, eliminate, remove, and get past this cancerous scourge of both man and administration that has taken over our shared public air space….and threatens not only the global environment but also the relationships of decent, self-respecting and law-abiding citizens everywhere.

Thanks Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, but more thanks to Robert Reich, and people like Paul Krugman, Ruth ben Ghiat, Timothy Snyder….and others who can be given as much air time as they can accommodate….this is an information as well as an indoctrination and propaganda war and we have to bring our best and brightest minds and facilities to the fight each and every day, until this dark and life-threatening cloud lifts.

And for those like Michael Smerconish who persist in ‘covering both sides,’ while arguably not ‘trumping’ for trump, he and others are nevertheless giving the man and his administration more positive air time than is appropriate, necessary and judicial at this time….the rules of journalism have to adapt to the new circumstances.