BRIC-TV

From left to right, Myerzon, Siegal and Leonard on the set of Straight Up.

It is not new for the mainstream media to cover a campaign in a manner that prizes shouting over substance, adopts broad and imprecise narratives and makes reporters part of the story. It is new for those missteps to have played a role in the election of a candidate with no government experience, a vaporous policy platform and a remarkable degree of support from white supremacists.

Now the question is how the media covers a president who has mocked reporters for their disabilities (and menstruation), rejected the most minimal customs of public disclosure, threatened to broaden libel laws, barred some news outlets from his events and presided over rallies where supporters sometimes expressed a violent hatred of the Fourth Estate. When a candidate can benefit from an unprecedented amount of free coverage and still manage with a straight face to claim the media treated him unfairly, it is clear that the next four years are going to be … interesting.

That’s what Sarah Leonard of The Nation, Collier Meyerson of Fusion and Harry Siegel from The Daily Beast discussed with me on the latest edition of Straight Up from BRIC-TV.