"The general practice went like this: The press would take something Trump said or did-for-instance, using a visit to the Centers for Disease Control to ask about Fox News's ratings, insult then-Washington Governor Jay Inslee, rant about his attempt to extort Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden, and downplay the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S.-and write them up as The New York Times did: "Trump Says 'People Have to Remain Calm' Amid Coronavirus Outbreak.""
"This "sanewashing" of Trump's statements isn't just poor journalism; it's a form of misinformation that poses a threat to democracy. By continually reframing Trump's incoherent and often dangerous rhetoric as conventional political discourse, major news outlets are failing in their duty to inform the public and are instead providing cover for increasingly erratic behavior from a former-and potentially future-president. The consequences of this journalistic malpractice extend far beyond misleading headlines."
Sanewashing describes the media practice of minimizing and sanitizing incoherent political statements to make them appear reasonable. The press frequently reframes rambling remarks—asking about Fox News ratings during a CDC visit, insulting a governor, ranting about extorting Ukraine, and downplaying rising Covid-19 cases—into calm, conventional headlines such as "People Have to Remain Calm." That reframing makes incoherent or dangerous rhetoric appear cogent to those who did not see the original remarks. Such sanitization acts as misinformation, undermines the public's information needs, enables erratic behavior, and corrodes shared reality and democratic accountability.
Read at emptywheel
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