Main stream media responsibility is to report real news with focus on indictment coverage about Donald Trump

Echo opinion editorial published in The News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina, by Bob Kustra, a two-term Republican Illinois lieutenant governor and former president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018.

More than 20 million Americans still get their news from the networks on the evening news. Although cable news and countless websites also produce news consumed by millions, those still relying on the evening news — which may be their only consumption of national news — remind us how important it is to get things right in 30 minutes. It’s safe to conclude that the Donald Trump voter is not watching network news but rather is glued to Fox News and other far-right platforms. 

So, that makes the mainstream networks a critical news source for voters who can still be influenced by the content of the news coverage, especially as the 2024, election is now officially underway. When you subtract the time devoted to commercials, weather and feel-good stories, those who rely on network evening news are leaning on a thin reed for the information required to keep democracy safe. Just recently, Lester Holt, on NBC, wasted valuable time on a report of the town of a lottery winner who had not yet even come forward. And that would be news❓💭😒 (IDTS😞❗)

If you watch enough of those evening news reports, you come away thinking that Trump’s return to power is a fait accompli and there is virtually nothing voters can do to preserve a democracy about to be tested as it never has in the history of American elections. Once again, as in 2016, Trump has manipulated national network news to serve his own interests. 

Check out how Trump responds to his serial indictments and days in court. He stands before a bank of cameras as American flags decorate the background as though he is still the president in the Oval Office. (Lester Holt and NBC News fall for it every time.) Meanwhile, there is limited coverage of the prosecutor’s case against Trump or the truth about what happened in court and why.

This is no time to give up on a serious challenge to Trump, even in the primaries. Some of his supporters have already peeled off and thrown their support to former governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley or Governor Ron DeSantis. Some of MAGA’s disillusionment with Trump was evident in interviews of Republican voters in Iowa who switched their allegiance. Governor Jay Pritzker of Illinois, speaking on behalf of the Democrats, pointed out that half of the primary voters in Iowa chose someone other than Trump. 

IOWA CAUCUS WIN OVER DESANTIS MISUNDERSTOOD 

Despite the extensive coverage of Trump’s victory in Iowa and its effect on future primaries, only 110,000 voters participated in that state’s caucus.  

To put that number in perspective, the average 2023, attendance at University of Michigan home football games is 109,997. And it’s always helpful to remember some of the Iowa primary winners never again to be heard from on the presidential campaign trail: Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012 and Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016. As the campaign moves to New Hampshire, it’s worth noting that the state has a history of upsetting the polls, the pundits and the Iowa caucus winner. That’s what George W. Bush discovered in 2000, when John McCain was victorious in New Hampshire after Bush won over the Republicans in Iowa. 

Notwithstanding the pundits who have already crowned Trump the New Hampshire victor, it is still possible that Haley could squeeze out a primary victory in the Granite State. 

It takes respected Republican officials like those who created Take Back Idaho to challenge the extremism in their party. 

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who enjoys a 63% approval rating, endorsed Haley and is blanketing the state urging support for her campaign. In Iowa, popular Governor Kim Reynolds’ strong endorsement of DeSantis has been discounted by many, but who knows if this most unattractive candidate who ran a chaotic campaign would have captured second place if the state’s governor had not endorsed and campaigned with him for the caucuses? 

Both governors were willing to take on Trump.

What is also missing from network news is coverage of Trump’s dangerous, vicious and treasonous attacks on anyone or anything standing in his way. He represents the antithesis of civility and the rule of law in a democratic society and, too often, he gets a pass from the media as just Trump blowing off steam again. 

Make no mistake about it. Trump’s egregious behavior this time around is considerably more dangerous and predictive of strongman rule if he is elected. His comments on his social network Truth Social, where he spouts off the very worst of his diatribes, should be reported on the networks. His is abnormal behavior for anyone who seeks to be president, and it cannot be ignored as “Trump being Trump.” By not reporting Trump’s outrageous behavior, the national media has normalized this thug as just another former president running for president. Why not major headlines and evening coverage of Trump’s greeting at Christmas? On the day set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus, he writes that those who oppose him should “ROT IN HELL.” Those are not my caps — those are his, just to emphasize his thuggery. 

Can you imagine the coverage of any other politician, of either party, saying anything like that? 

NEW ATTACK ON JOHN MCCAIN’S WAR COMBAT INJURY 

In his usual attempts to scorn, badger and insult anyone who disagrees with him, he took after the late McCain again recently. 

(Unbelievably❗) Trump mocked the injury to McCain's arm, the result of torture for five and a half years in a North Vietnam POW camp. In New Hampshire, using language reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror, he claimed that immigrants to America are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

He also attacked our judicial system by quoting tyrant Vladimir Putin’s criticism of the American political system. He makes “The Manchurian Candidate” look like an innocent bystander — but perhaps the scariest of all his diatribes is his claim that he intends to be a dictator on his first day in office. Do we have any idea how much harm a dictator could do to our constitutional democracy in 24 hours? Many in the mainstream media portray Trump as just a former president running for the office again. 

In fact, Trump is the mob boss of the Republican family, who makes Don Corleone look like a Boy Scout leader.

Trump’s henchmen are working Republican members of Congress, vilifying any one of them who chooses to support another candidate and sending primary opposition their way. It should surprise none of us that cowardly Idaho Sen. Jim Risch was just the latest to fall in line. They say it ain’t over ‘till the fat lady sings. 

I can already hear her, but she’s not loud enough yet to put Trump back in the White House. Now is not the time to give up.