{"id":1916126,"date":"2023-04-18T05:41:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T09:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysis-trump-coverage-reveals-how-media-frame-and-exclude\/"},"modified":"2023-04-18T05:46:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T09:46:20","slug":"analysis-trump-coverage-reveals-how-media-frame-and-exclude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysis-trump-coverage-reveals-how-media-frame-and-exclude\/","title":{"rendered":"ANALYSIS: Trump Coverage Reveals How Media Frame and Exclude"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanalysis-trump-coverage-reveals-how-media-frame-and-exclude%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916126&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0414\/d6420d5e-7cf3-4774-8e49-5226fc9f1a66\/audio.mp3?length=7056045&#038;duration=588\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><em>News Analysis<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been more than a week since the indictment of former President Donald Trump dominated the news cycle.<\/p>\n<p>What happened to the story?<\/p>\n<p>As of late afternoon on April 13, the name \u201cTrump\u201d appeared nowhere on the front page of Google News.<\/p>\n<p>There and elsewhere, the arrest of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking classified national defense material, claimed the limited attention spans of those in the American community of journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Trump and the indictment didn\u2019t make the very top of The New York Times\u2019 digital front page. Yet, the title of a subsection about a quarter of the way down, \u201cThe Trump Investigations,\u201d offers some clues as to how Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg\u2019s controversial case may be recast\u2014namely, as one of many legal quagmires through which the former commander-in-chief must trudge.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5132826\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/03\/18\/alvin-bragg-in-nyc-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in New York City on Jan. 13, 2023. (Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>Fox News was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2023\/mar\/03\/fox-news-soft-ban-trump-murdoch-sean-hannity\">accused in March<\/a> of a soft ban on Trump appearing on its channel, yet on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4ktEFFrtq5I\">April 12,<\/a>\u00a0it posted Trump\u2019s first interview since his indictment, which it featured partway down its digital front page. An article on Bragg also made the cut.<\/p>\n<p>The former president was almost a total non-entity on the digital front page of CNN, famously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/trump-pans-fox-news-over-coverage-of-border-wall-negotiations_2781567.html\">dismissed<\/a> by Trump as \u201cFake News CNN.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s part of a noticeable pattern over the past week. Although coverage of Trump has fluctuated, it has generally trended downward. Yet, the legacy media\u2019s \u201cindispensable man\u201d has never fully exited the news cycle.<\/p>\n<h2>Weak Case Driving Coverage Downward: News Analyst<\/h2>\n<p>Kevin Tober, a news analyst with the conservative Media Research Center, has been monitoring coverage of Trump.<\/p>\n<p>His March 28 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbusters.org\/blogs\/nb\/kevin-tober\/2023\/03\/28\/sunday-shows-spend-over-hour-trump-indictment-ignore-hunter-biden\">article<\/a>, written before Trump\u2019s indictment was released, noted that the four big Sunday news roundtable shows obsessed over that story while ignoring key new stories that could hurt President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Those revelations included <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/vp-bidens-office-tried-quash-bloomberg-story-about-hunter-biden-his-firms-request-emails-show\">emails<\/a> from during Biden\u2019s vice presidency suggesting that members of the Biden family sought to downplay coverage of Hunter Biden\u2019s Burisma Holdings board membership in 2015, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/release\/icymi-comer-on-hannity-subpoena-in-biden-family-investigation-reveals-new-family-member-involved-treasury-allows-committee-to-view-sars%EF%BF%BC\/\">subpoenas<\/a> from the House Oversight Committee that appear to link the Bidens to payouts from a Chinese energy company.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4684373\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/08\/23\/GettyImages-1242488276.jpeg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> President Joe Biden (L) waves alongside his son Hunter Biden after attending mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, S.C., on Aug. 13, 2022. (Nicholas Kamm\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>Tober has a theory about why the indictment has faded from view.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the media looked at what\u2019s in the indictment, and they realized there\u2019s nothing there,\u201d he told The Epoch Times in an April 12 interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven they are embarrassed to be hyping this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Once the indictment was unsealed, legal experts quickly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/legal-experts-break-down-the-flaws-in-trumps-indictment_5175183.html\">identified numerous flaws<\/a>. Those issues range from the way it blends state and federal laws to its vagueness concerning Trump\u2019s alleged second crime.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, even if the media are quietly backing away from a weak case, their powerful megaphone may have served the intended purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Pro-Trump commentator John Doyle argued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Wfb9XwCOuJ8\">in an April 7 video<\/a> that people who don\u2019t follow the news closely will see the former president more negatively on average because of the indictment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re just going to remember that, you know, every time they turned on the news in the gym, whatever, it seemed like Trump was wrapped up in some scandal, which will just make them more likely to think, \u2018Well, they finally got him,&#8217;\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The media, Tober said, are \u201calways quick to report on anti-conservative or anti-Republican stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his view, one of the media\u2019s biggest tricks is omitting or downplaying inconvenient information, sometimes in response to explicit instructions.<\/p>\n<p>He cited CBS News\u2019 ban on the word \u201ctransgender\u201d in its coverage of the shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/03\/30\/cbs-execs-bar-the-word-transgender-from-reports-on-audrey-hale\/\">as reported by<\/a> the New York Post.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018The Current Thing\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>One useful concept for making sense of the news cycle originated more than a year ago as a spinoff of the \u201cnon-playable character\u201d meme\u2014\u201dThe Current Thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Current Thing is often the top story for days, weeks, or even months at a time. And not only are you forced to think about it\u2014you\u2019d better support it or risk paying the social price.<\/p>\n<p>An early example comes from 2012, with the crusade against African warlord Joseph Kony.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, The Current Thing has ranged from COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4291021\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/02\/21\/GettyImages-1238653466.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Demonstrators gather at the Lincoln Memorial to stand in solidarity with Ukraine and protest against the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine before marching to the White House in Washington on Feb. 20, 2022. Attendees called for President Joe Biden to take a stronger stance on deterring Russia from invading Ukraine and demanded the end of Russia\u2019s occupation of Crimea. (Kenny Holston\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>For many, The Current Thing is becoming harder and harder to escape with each passing year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Current Thing, at a fundamental level, is a distraction, any distraction,\u201d Adam Ellwanger, an English professor at the University of Houston\u2013Downtown, said in an April 14 interview with The Epoch Times. \u201cAmerican society is at a very late stage in its degradation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellwanger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/the-tyranny-of-the-current-thing\/\">wrote<\/a> about what he sees as the elite-driven nature of The Current Thing for The American Conservative in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCurrent Thing-ism is about freezing the public gaze on one problem, in the hope that they remain oblivious\u2014or indifferent\u2014to the rest, and thus remain ignorant of the bigger picture,\u201d Ellwanger said. \u201cBecause the establishment is thoroughly leftist, the issues that become The Current Thing are ones that are conducive to advancing the agenda of the political and cultural left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For a few days, Trump\u2019s indictment was The Current Thing.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, as Tober noted, the story lost momentum over the following week, though didn\u2019t disappear completely.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment-related stories that did emerge illustrate another powerful weapon in the media\u2019s arsenal\u2014namely, the framing of a specific story and the latest Current Thing.<\/p>\n<p>On April 11, for example, Bragg\u2019s lawsuit against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) dominated many headlines.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan\u2019s original subpoena, the trigger for Bragg\u2019s reaction, hadn\u2019t commanded anything resembling the same amount of attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFraming is very often ideological,\u201d Tober said.<\/p>\n<p>Some argue that The Current Thing is more a product of financial incentives than of political belief. After all, journalists make money from the public\u2019s attention. Why wouldn\u2019t they capitalize on a snowballing story, regardless of ideology?<\/p>\n<p>Despite their legendary self-obsession, media entities themselves might not give you the best answers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe media kind of goes back and forth like a ping-pong ball. They follow whatever the new thing is, the new controversy,\u201d Tober said.<\/p>\n<p>This writer ran a test using the most unscientific method possible: a Twitter poll.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What factor mostly determines &#8220;the current thing&#8221;? (Please retweet this one.)<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nathan Worcester (@nnworcester) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nnworcester\/status\/1646623644053827584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In the eyes of those who answered, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nnworcester\/status\/1646623644053827584\">ideology edges out money<\/a> in establishing The Current Thing, leaving chance or other factors in the dust.<\/p>\n<p>In fairness, it\u2019s pretty hard to imagine that our media present\u2014and police\u2014the latest big stories without taking politics into consideration.<\/p>\n<p>The current Current Thing, Teixeira\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/what-we-know-about-jack-teixeira-accused-of-involvement-in-classified-documents-leak_5194429.html\">arrest<\/a>, has been publicized as a national security risk for the United States and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/national-security\/us-intel-agencies-missed-classified-documents-leaked-on-discord-rcna79404?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&#038;taid=643711501d49bb0001313082&#038;utm_campaign=trueanthem&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_source=twitter\">possible justification<\/a> for expanded government monitoring of social media by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5194673\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/04\/14\/id5194673-teixeira-1200x675.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Jack Teixeira, in T-shirt and shorts, being taken into custody by armed tactical agents in Dighton, Mass., on April 13, 2023. (WCVB-TV via AP)<\/figure>\n<p>It comes just weeks after Congress proposed the RESTRICT Act, a putatively anti-TikTok bill that could greatly expand the government\u2019s ability to clamp down on online communications.<\/p>\n<p>The explosive content of the leaks, and what they reveal about the United States\u2019 involvement in Ukraine, has remained a relative afterthought.<\/p>\n<h2>Trump Versus The Current Thin<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News Analysis It\u2019s been more than a week since the indictment of former President Donald Trump dominated the news cycle. What happened to the story? As of late afternoon on April 13, the name \u201cTrump\u201d appeared nowhere on the front page of Google News. There and elsewhere, the arrest of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, accused of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":1916127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[7428,3711,10535,20665,4188,5114,3634],"class_list":["post-1916126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-analysis","tag-coverage","tag-exclude","tag-frame","tag-media","tag-reveals","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}