NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik analyzed press coverage of former President Donald Trump at the University of Idaho’s ninth annual Oppenheimer Media Ethics Symposium Feb 4.
Folkenflik has spent the past two decades covering the media for NPR, reporting on the increasingly hostile relationship between the press, politicians and the general public. His stories are broadcast through the network’s newsmagazines, such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Here & Now.
According to Folkenflik, ethics isn’t “something you keep in a jar” for when bad things happen, rather it’s something that should be embedded in every decision journalists make. Over the years, Folkenflik has used this framework to analyze how media relationships have changed – particularly in the age of Trump.
“Those who oppose, critique or are exhausted by Trump might say this is the media’s fault they are exhausted by him,” Folkenflik said. “They say he’s the media creation. I think that’s wrong. I think Donald Trump is a self-creation.”
Before running for president, Trump had already made a name for himself as a real-estate developer and businessman who owned several hotels, casinos and golf courses, not to mention his television and movie appearances. By reversing people’s expectations of how a politician might behave, Trump pushed his actions into the national consciousness.
But what made Trump so successful at garnering media attention was that you never quite knew what he would say. Folkenflik acknowledged it was the media who gave him this attention.
As Trump became a front-runner in the 2016 Presidential Election, the media began investigating every facet of his life, including his family, finances and foreign relations. This intensified hostility between politicians and the media, according to Folkenflik.
“It was almost as if Trump had made the media his main opponent in the primaries,” Folkenflik said. “At times, you saw reporters acting out on social media or being needlessly confrontational in their verbal jousting with the president. Not to say it wasn’t warranted, or the press hadn’t been unfairly attacked, just that there were times it seemed as if they walked into the role of adversary.”
With President Joe Biden now in the White House, journalists must consider how to begin covering the new administration. While Trump launched various attacks on the press during his time in office, Biden has historically maintained a good relationship with journalists. This disparity between the predecessor and the current president is stark, Folkenflik said.
“I think the media needs to hold Joe Biden accountable,” Folkenflik said. “They need to figure out how to not go chasing after him as if everything is a mega scandal simply because that was the pitch they were given with Trump.”
Folkenflik was scheduled to visit Idaho last April, but his Oppenheimer talk was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to UI’s website. This year, in addition to the virtual public lecture, Folkenflik met with student journalists and advised university faculty members about the challenges industry educators are presented with.
The symposium is sponsored by UI’s School of Journalism and Mass Media with the goal of promoting professional responsibility and ethical behavior by media professionals, in addition to exposing students to nationally known journalists.
Angela Palermo can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @apalermotweets