Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.
With the September 10 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump soon upon us, here are three quotes that summarize where we stand in the 2024 presidential election, and also the likely nature of the campaign going forward.
Two quotes have graced Bleeding Heartland posts so often you may be able to recite them by heart.
The first is from presidential candidate Donald Trump in Sioux Center, Iowa, in January 2016: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
Another quote came a month later in February 2016 when Lester Moonves, then CEO of CBS, declared, “Trump’s candidacy may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
If that weren’t enough, Moonves added, “The money’s rolling in and this is fun. I’ve never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”
Trump, as we know, did bring it on, and kept going. Won the presidency in 2016, falsely claims it was “stolen” from him in 2020, and is back to haunt democracy and most of the world with his bid in 2024.
The third quote is more than 60 years old. Former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), ran for president in 1952 and 1956, losing both times to General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The role of the press in our society, Stevenson said, is “to separate the wheat from the chaff and print the chaff.”
Print the chaff
So far much of the news coverage anticipating the September 10 debate has focused on debris from Trump’s debate against President Joe Biden in late June, and whether the candidates’ microphones should now be muted when it’s not their turn to speak. Silencing the mic would mean a moderator or Harris would not have to tell Trump, “Shut up!”
Not addressed so far: whether ABC, the debate sponsor, will allow Trump’s lies to contaminate the substance or “wheat” of the give-and-take. The Republican lied frequently throughout the June 27 debate, as PolitiFact and FactCheck catalogued.
CNN, which hosted the last debate, had told moderators not to challenge candidates’ comments, passing the buck by having candidates hold one another accountable. It didn’t work.
Further, given the format and procedures of formal debates calling the new match-up a “debate” makes as much sense as embracing “alternative facts” as highly credible.
Damn good for CBS
Thanks to Lester Moonves, CBS may be the poster boy for the notion that much of the TV and print news media focuses more on advertising profits than on informing viewers and readers. The hype provided by and to Trump even before his political candidacies lends credence to that.
But what also has to be figured into the balance sheet is the fear that viewers and readers may shun coverage they deem too critical or unfair—that has economic impact, too. So, Fox News in particular feeds its audience what it wants to hear.
I could (fill in the blank) and I wouldn’t lose any voters
In some respects, Trump did not need the U.S. Supreme Court decision granting the president broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.
His supporters, including Iowa’s U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Governor Kim Reynolds, and Attorney General Brenna Bird, grant him sweeping immunity from actions and words that would doom the political future of any other candidate.
if the past is any indication, Trump is unlikely to lose any support from MAGA supporters, regardless of what he says or does in the next debate.
Harris has no such guarantee. although the revival of the Democratic Party is encouraging.
For much of the press, it’s old news that Trump is a liar and a tireless self promoter, among other flaws— such as being convicted of 34 felonies or being a serial cheater, a bankruptcy-prone businessman, and a draft dodger who used Arlington National Cemetery, a temple of our civil religion, as a campaign prop. Also apparently old news: Trump has regularly betrayed supposed friends, and promoted a supposed anti-COVID drug that was linked to 17,000 deaths.
What we already know about Trump receives less news coverage than any new misstep by Harris (however minor) would produce.
So the debate and the rest of the presidential campaign could be a minefield for the Democrat.
As for Trump, he could rightly say, “I have walked through a political minefield and set off every one, without losing any voters or a hair on my head.”
The answer won’t hinge on walking through a minefield, but on how many Harris voters walk or ride to the polls on November 5.
Top photos: Official presidential photo of Donald Trump; Les Moonves at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Woody Allen‘s film Whatever Works, photo by David Shankbone, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license; portrait of Adlai Stevenson during his 1956 presidential campaign.