A few years ago, Jon Lovett floated a theory that media treats Democrats like protagonists - to be challenged, accounted, and forced to be behave in growth-oriented ways - while the GOP are treated like antagonists - immutable, expected to disrupt, thematic obstacles.
Thinking about that a lot.
I don’t recall the NYT calling for Trump to step down after being convicted of 34 counts of fraud and being called by a judge at his civil trial a rapist in the common person sense
This was meant to explain how the media can believe they have a leftward slant - viewing Dems as their “heroes” - while simultaneously playing out a rightward bias by “bothsidesing” and pricing in low expectations for Republican humanity.
The story of Election 2024 is obviously “will the villainous Trump return to destroy democracy once and for all?” Almost no one - Republicans included - denies this narrative. But the media’s refusal to participate makes it feel more out of “narrative integrity” than journalistic.
“Will the old hero be forced to step down or rally once again? Has the Good Man wearied and lost his way? Has he carried the burden too long? Did he become too morally grey?”
And now, “will he pass the sword to a new hero, whose trial we begin now?”
