Donald Trump’s incessant repetition of a hateful lie against Haitian immigrants in Ohio has now led to terror threats and schools shutting down.
But, don’t call Trump racist! He just had another racial flare-up! His MAGA base always rewards him each time he indulges in xenophobia, Islamophobia or misogyny, but don’t call them out on it and instead chalk it up to “economic anxiety.”
Last weekend, Trump promised his draconian immigration plan - that includes deporting millions of individuals - would be a “bloody story” but that threat didn’t make headline news. Yesterday, Trump again forgot the state he was in and mistook Arizona for Pennsylvania. If it was Biden, there would be immediate calls for his resignation and numerous op-eds about his cognitive impairment, but when it’s Trump, eh, it’s all good.
And on and on it goes for the past 9 years.
This deliberate sanitization of Trump’s cruelty, whitewashing of his racism, “both sides” asymmetry in coverage, and careful editing of his most inane ramblings are all examples of what media critic and journalist Parker Molloy describes as “sanewashing.” Her term has taken off in the past two weeks and is used as an example of the media’s failure to accurately cover and push back against Trump and MAGA’s extremism.
Meanwhile, Parker has been doing the hard work over at her brilliant newsletter The Present Age, most recently discussing how the media is failing to cover Trump’s attack on Haitians.
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How Corporate Media Sanewashes Trump's Racism and Lies