Our Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there aren’t two sides to facts: Letter from the Editor

Optional@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 578 points –
Our Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there aren’t two sides to facts: Letter from the Editor
cleveland.com

The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.

The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.

Cleveland Plain Dealer teaches The New York Times how to journalism.

22

Balls. This editor has balls.

Mad respect.

Our nation does seem to be slipping down the same slide that Germany did in the 1930s. Maybe the collapse of government in the hands of a madman is inevitable, given how the media landscape has been corrupted by partisans, as it was in 1930s Germany.

I hope not.

And a mad man could soon have a shit ton of nukes and one of the best militaries the world has ever seen. Please vote this November

...and this is what it takes for people to turn back to their local news media for accurate, unbiased coverage. Kudos to cleveland.com and any other media organization who decides to print the truth and not some repackaged drivel from the handful of largely-conservative mass media organizations.

This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.

Are Republicans trying to pretend now that the Jan. 6th incident never happened?

No, they’re just trying to push “It wasn’t an insurrection. It was just a protest, and protests are American!”

They're kinda saying all kinds of contradictory shit. It never happened, it did happen but it was antifa, it did happen and it was a peacful protest. It goes on.

some 1984 shit, trying to convince people what they heard and saw is not real

I sent a thank-you email to the editor and also pointed out a missing word so the can fix a sentence (I'm just pedantic like that). I hope more newsrooms will follow this example.

I heard in a podcast interview that whatever GOP org is now adding the following to their interview process: "Who won the 2020 election?" If you don't say Trump, you don't get the job. The amount of control that he has over the GOP is still startling.