WaPo media columnist offers 'prescription' for how to cover 'threats to democracy' in final op-ed

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan suggested that Donald Trump running for president in 2024 could put democracy at risk in her final op-ed for the paper on Sunday.

Sullivan remarked how she was asked about the media's coverage of "threats to democracy" after her retirement was announced. She claimed she alternated between "encouraged" and "despairing" and admitted that the possibility of Trump running for president again in 2024 "is going to be a real test for the reality-based press."

"I’m often reminded of the troubling questions posed by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl in multiple interviews late last year about what it would mean to cover Trump if and when he runs for president again. He deemed it perhaps the greatest challenge American political reporters will ever face," Sullivan said.

Various media outlets and Democrats have called on journalists to abandon "both-sidesism" when reporting on politicians in favor of defending "democracy." While Sullivan stopped short of calling on journalists to root for Trump’s "rivals," she complimented efforts to reframe conversations about the former president and other allies.

TRUMP’S ‘FIERCEST CRITICS’ GUILTY OF THE VERY VIOLATION OF NORMS THEY ACCUSE HIM OF: JARED KUSHNER 

"The media has come a long, long way in figuring out how to cover the democracy-threatening ways of Donald Trump and his allies, including his stalwart helpers in right-wing media. It is now common to see headlines and stories that plainly refer to some politicians as ‘election deniers,’ and journalists are far less hesitant to use the blunt and clarifying word ‘lie’ to describe Trump’s false statements," Sullivan wrote.

For another example, she referenced recent coverage on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ announcement that 20 people had been charged for voter fraud in his state and how media should cover topics with "plenty of context and thoughtful framing."

"As Kate Pickert, director of Loyola Marymount’s journalism program, noted last week, AP’s Twitter news alert took DeSantis’s hyperventilating news conference at face value, providing the kind of treatment the governor might have written himself: ‘Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced criminal charges against 20 people for illegally voting in 2020, the first major public move from the Republican’s controversial new election police unit.’ Whereas the New York Times tweet cut through the noise (I’ve added the italics): ‘Gov. Ron DeSantis said 17 people have been charged with casting illegal ballots in the 2020 election, in which 11.1 million Floridians voted. There is no evidence that election crimes are a serious problem in Florida or anywhere else in the U.S,’" Sullivan explained.

PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS ‘BLIND’ TO HUMAN TRAGEDY’ CAUSED BY ABORTION RESTRICTIONS: WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD 

She added, "So my prescription — and it’s only a start — is less live campaign coverage, more context and thoughtful framing, and more fearless straight talk from news leaders about what’s at stake and why politics coverage looks different."

Ahead of the Jan. 6 anniversary, Sullivan previously pleaded for media organizations to add a "new emphasis" on promoting more "pro-democracy" coverage before it’s "too late." While media organizations have improved and The Post has since created a "Democracy Team," she worried "that it’s not nearly enough." 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

She warned, "The deeper question is whether news organizations can break free of their hidebound practices — the love of political conflict, the addiction to elections as a horse race — to address those concerns effectively. For the sake of democracy, they must."