How the Media Normalizes Trump

Aaron Rupar: “By almost any standard, President Trump’s rally on Tuesday evening in Milwaukee was a bizarre affair. The president went on a lengthy tirade about lightbulbs, toilets, and showers; touted war crimes; joked about a former president being in hell; and said he’d like to see one of his domestic political foes locked up.”

“I tried to capture some of the speech’s disconcerting oddness in my write-up of the event. In many ways, the remarks the president made were typical of him. And that provides the media with a challenge: Describing Trump as he really is can make it seem as if a report is ‘anti-Trump’ and that the reporter is trying to make the president look foolish.”

“But for media outlets that view themselves as above taking sides, attempts to provide a sober, ‘balanced’ look at presidential speeches often end up normalizing things that are decidedly not normal.”