The TRump Administration, the Media, and Election 2020


by: Avery, Luke, and kiefer

Kiefer: As this presidential election comes to a close, there is a whole lot to unpack. During this election, especially under the circumstances of a global pandemic, hostility and tensions have been higher than we've seen before.


Avery: I read articles from the Wall Street Journal to evaluate how well they covered Election Day and the events following. Even though I’ve always been told that the Wall Street Journal tends to lean conservative, I found that none of the articles I read were overly biased, and I found a variety of articles presenting different thoughts.


Luke: Were there any main themes that you picked up on while reading these articles?


Avery: Yes! There were a plethora of articles about lawsuits presented by the Trump campaign and their invalidity. I only read one conservative article that discussed Trump’s over-performance among the Latino community, but the majority of articles were about questionable cases in battleground states.


Luke: I read similar articles, but most were liberal leaning. It is interesting that sources on both sides of the political spectrum would cover similar stories in similar ways. I also read about Trump’s allegations of voter fraud.


Avery: Do you have any specific examples of the media referencing Trump’s allegations of voter fraud?


Luke: One article was about Trump’s address claiming fraud and declaring that he would easily win if only legal votes were counted. The liberal leaning article called these claims “unfounded conspiracy theories.” In addition to directly reporting on Trump’s allegations, there have also been many stories about how social media companies have responded and attempted to limit the spread of mis- and disinformation. Kiefer, do you have anything to add on this topic?


Kiefer: I covered the New York Times, and a lot of the same themes were covered. I read a very interesting article that covered Twitter’s influence on the general public. The Times focused mainly on misinformation spread by Republican officials or advisors of the Trump campaign, showing how politicians can have a large impact on the public through social media in today’s era.


Luke: The article I read about social media concerned Trump’s post declaring victory in South Carolina. The article was from Politico, which had already called South Carolina for Trump at the time. It was strange that twitter flagged a post which was factual according to some credible news outlets, but Twitter stuck to its policy in which two out of seven specified organizations must have called the race for a twitter user to be permitted to say who won without a flag.


Avery: Personally, I think the media did a great job of covering the election despite all of the controversy and tension surrounding the race. It can’t be easy to be a journalist right now, so we have to give authors credit for still providing the public with valuable information. What do you guys think?


Luke: I mostly agree, Avery. The media did their best covering such a chaotic election year. I was impressed that all of the articles I read were factually based, even if they contained perspective. That being said, there are certainly areas of improvement for the media. For example, we talk about Trump declaring victory too early, but I think that certain television channels also were quick to call certain races. What do you think about how well the media covered the election, Kiefer?


Kiefer: I didn’t see any articles about COVID-19’s impact on the election. This surprised me since cases are currently spiking around the nation.


Luke: I agree. The lack of articles about how COVID-19 played out during the election is especially surprising because early in the fall there was an abundance of readily available information about COVID-19 in context of the election.


Avery: I think it’s clear that while the media covered the election extensively, there was still an imbalance in what they chose to cover. For example, media sources could balance out their coverage on the two political parties, rather than focusing more on the Republican party.


Kiefer: I guess we can all hope that the political climate in 2024 will be less ardent and allow for a smoother election process!