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I have been asking myself what might prevent another New Tone Tuesday, where POTUS reads some scripted lines in his hostage voice and the press reports a change. https://presswatchers.org/2020/07/save-lives-or-obsess-about-trumps-tone-political-reporters-make-the-wrong-choice/ Ridicule after the fact has had little effect. Something more pre-emptive is called for... 1/
A newsroom that wanted to keep this pattern from repeating itself would need STANDARDS for what constitutes a significant shift, not in his tone striking but in his problem-solving. Talk to public health experts, read the studies, consult the proposals that are out there and— 2/
— come up with your newsroom's most considered view on what "changing course," and "showing presidential leadership" actually mean in this situation. Which steps are required? It is imminently knowable. So do the work and compose a standard. That's step one. 3/
Here's @Froomkin on its core elements: "Institute a robust national testing plan that includes massive supply-chain management; support and guide a national contact-tracing initiative; and forcefully request that people wear masks."
There is more needed, but that's the core. 4/
There is more needed, but that's the core. 4/
Step two: transparency. Publish and explain your new newsroom standard.
"Here's how we are going to track and measure changes in the president's plan to bring the pandemic under control."
Here is how we came up with it.
Here is how we will use it.
Now you're accountable. 5/
"Here's how we are going to track and measure changes in the president's plan to bring the pandemic under control."
Here is how we came up with it.
Here is how we will use it.
Now you're accountable. 5/
Step three: Use it. When Trump starts making virus noises that sound different from the noises he had been making, you don't report a shift because his words changed. You compare what he's doing to the public standard for presidential problem-solving that you have established. 6/
I know this is not how newsrooms normally operate, but this is not a normal event— is it? The kind of informed judgment required to produce what I have called a leadership standard is no different in kind from the judgments made in a good explainer or front page investigation. 7/
In Slide Two, I wrote, "A newsroom that wanted to keep this pattern from repeating itself..." That's actually the hardest part. Deciding you want to stop doing this. Creating the tools and circuit breakers to prevent another New Tone Tuesday is not especially difficult. 8/ END
