MAGA is a virus and the press should be the vaccine

America is in the midst of a political pandemic.

Perilously close to half of its population has fallen prey to a disorder called MAGA.

Many people are resistant, which is good. Many of the sickest people are beyond hope, which is bad. But inevitably, there are some who could be spared or cured if properly inoculated and immunized.

Should a majority succumb, the nation as we know it will perish.

That’s how our major news organizations should be thinking of Trumpism: As a deadly virus.

And the mission of any self-respecting journalist should be to stop its spread, fight it, cure it, and prevent it from recurring — in this case, with the enthusiastic injection of facts, including a booster on the value of pluralism.

Instead, our elite political journalists are sitting by as people succumb to MAGA’s influence, downplaying the stakes by portraying the 2024 election as just another partisan fight for power between “liberals” and “conservatives”.

Through their lack of alarm, they are telling people that being infected with MAGA is a legitimate choice, not a malady.

They are giving them permission to be sick.

And the thing is, they know better.

Our top political journalists are fully aware that Trump is deranged, that he is a liar and a race-baiter, with wildly destructive and authoritarian plans for the government should he win.

They see that Trump and his supporters deny reality and traffic in harmful conspiracy theories.

They realize MAGA is fueled by racism, misogyny, white Christian nationalism, and resentment.

They know that virtually every prominent Republican who isn’t craving power in a Trump administration has denounced him as unfit to lead.

And they see how the prime vector for MAGA is disinformation – lie after lie after lie – which alone ought to rouse them to action.

What precisely should they do?

First, they should do no harm. Stop broadcasting the lies — certainty without immediate and thorough debunking.

Then:

• Confront and dispel disinformation as aggressively as Trump and MAGA media outlets spread it. Trump’s entire campaign is based on lies – primarily about the economy and immigration. Real journalists need to trumpet the truth as enthusiastically as Fox and its ilk trumpet the lies. Explore the “why” behind the lie.
• Treat Trump and MAGA as something radical and dangerous, not just another plausible option in November. Stop both-sidesing every story. There are, for instance, not two sides to Trump’s embrace of eugenics.
• Write about Trump’s deranged mental state. It’s terrifying, and seems to be getting worse all the time.
• Call out the racism.
• Call out the misogyny.
• Quote Trump accurately, and at length, rather than overgenerously summarizing him. No more sanewashing.
• Remind people repeatedly that Trump is a race-baiting serial liar as well as a convicted felon, e.g. on second reference: “Trump, whose stump speeches are riddled with racism and lies, and who has been convicted of multiple felonies related to hush money he paid a porn star ….”
• Address the issues. Discuss possible solutions to problems. Then explain what (if anything) the candidates are proposing.
• Interview experts – from neurologists to climate scientists. Expertise is anathema to MAGA.
• Advocate for democracy. Describe the authoritarian threat. Write about attacks on voting rights. Write about Trump’s threats of violence. Discuss the value of the First, Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments in particular.
• Write about how journalism itself is under attack from MAGA.
• Don’t be afraid. Don’t engage in “anticipatory obedience” and censor yourself because you are worried about alienating Republicans. They’ll hate you anyway.
• Tell lots of stories about the value of immigration and pluralism. Just like we almost never reads or sees stories about people who’ve gotten jobs and raises in the Biden economy, we rarely read or see stories about how immigration fuels the economy and enriches communities.
• Talk to people who are only moderately afflicted by or susceptible to MAGA, and find out what drives them, where they get their news, and what could bring them back to reality. Explain it to your audience.

We are in a state of national emergency. This is no time for moderation or delay. The stakes are deadly to America as we know it. Journalists need to do their job and help heal the nation before it’s too late.