OP-ED: Mainstream media already getting 2024 coverage wrong with Biden, Trump UAW reporting
Jennifer Schulze writes, “The 2024 presidential campaign has only just begun, and the mainstream media is already making too many coverage mistakes. We need a course correction now.”
Pop quiz: Who met with striking UAW workers last week in Michigan? Biden? Trump? Both? Neither? If you relied on mainstream media for information, you might answer that question incorrectly.
In numerous stories over several days, news outlets including The New York Times reported that Biden and Trump were basically doing the same thing but on different days. That’s just not true. Biden met with striking UAW workers on the picket line (a first for any U.S. president, by the way). The next day, Trump went to a non-union shop, invited by management.
A rare reporter who did get it right, Craig Mauger of the Detroit News, attended the Trump rally and noted that there were fake union signs and people pretending to be UAW strikers:
“One individual in the crowd who held a sign that said ‘union members for Trump,’ acknowledged that she wasn’t a union member when approached by a Detroit News reporter after the event. Another person with a sign that read ‘auto workers for Trump’ said he wasn’t an auto worker when asked for an interview. Both people didn’t provide their names.”
Eight years after Mr. Trump descended the golden escalator, there is no excuse for getting stories about him so wrong so often. Journalism holds a privileged place in our democracy, and with that privilege comes responsibility. Heading into what will likely be a 2024 Biden/Trump rematch, examples like the Michigan coverage raise very troubling questions about the media’s ability to do its job.
Accuracy and context are required. Required. By now, it must be clear to every journalist that Mr. Trump is a master manipulator who thrives on chaos and lies. When reporters affirm that a future event will happen because Mr. Trump or his staff says it will, they participate in the spread of dangerous lies.
How did the mainstream media get the story wrong?
This latest media mishap seems to have originated from whispers by unnamed campaign staffers to key media figures, including Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher. In a piece titled “Trump to Woo Striking Union Members in Detroit, Skipping 2nd G.O.P. Debate,” they wrote:
“The trip, which will include a prime-time speech before current and former union members, is the second consecutive primary debate that Mr. Trump is skipping to instead hold his own counterprogramming.”
The reporters listened to their sources and reported that something would happen in the future. It was a lie. Like the lie of infrastructure week. Or that there would be a health care bill next week. Lies the press helped spread just because someone in the Trump world said them. In this case, the seed planted by those operatives and watered by The New York Times reporters, and others sprouted everywhere, as Matt Shuham of Huffington Post reports:
“Similar reports, all citing anonymous sources, followed. NPR reported that Trump would ‘join striking union auto workers.’ The Associated Press said he would ‘meet with striking autoworkers.’ The Washington Post said he was planning ‘to give a speech to union workers.’ In a story republished on CBS Detroit, another AP story told readers that Trump would ‘visit striking autoworkers in Michigan.’”
It’s worth noting that on the morning of Trump’s Sept. 27 rally, the UAW made it clear that it was not inviting Trump to meet with striking workers. Oddly, that fact seemed to be absent from much of the news coverage. Instead, stories with the false equivalency persisted in key political news outlets including Politico, NPR, USA Today, and ABC News. MSNBC also got in on the game when it ran a misleading lower third banner claiming “UAW members get back-to-back visits by Biden & Trump.”
Then on X/Twitter, a top news photographer shared his picture of the Trump rally with an inaccurate caption that read: Trump “greets union members at Drake Enterprises in Clinton Township Michigan”. That post was corrected the next day, but not before Trump amplified it even more by reposting it on his Truth Social platform.
Why facts matter
In this case, both Biden and Trump are actively courting UAW workers. Plus, the swing state of Michigan will be key to winning the White House in 2024. News stories, social media posts and even media headlines can all have an impact on elections, from expectation setting to voter enthusiasm, voter turnout and endorsements.
It’s vital that journalists get the facts right and add a healthy dose of skepticism to politicians’ claims. Not nearly enough media outlets bothered to circle back to what actually happened in Michigan last week, so the false impression lingers.
Here in Chicago, journalists have an old saying: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” That seems like pretty good advice for every journalist on this political beat and beyond.
Jennifer Schulze is a former Chicago journalist who talks media every month on WCPT 820AM on “Live, Local & Progressive with Joan Esposito” with former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob. You can follow her on Twitter/X @NewsJennifer or Threads @jenniferschulzechi.
