In times of increased governance and individual freedom of expression, it is difficult to find silver linings. But at least the media company can no longer pretend that the abandonment of journalistic standards has become necessary due to the unique character of Donald Trump. “Resistance Journalism” is the industry standard today, measured against a story about Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis from the formerly renowned television news magazine “60 Minutes”.
Resistance journalism is the term coined by media expert Ben Smith one of the most successful practitioners of the genre. The idea was to create compelling anti-Trump narratives that weren’t tied to traditional fact-checking obligations.
The Trump administration started with news organizations Whipping out false agreements from anonymous sources. It recently ended with news organizations whipping a false story from a single anonymous source that did not even witness the relevant event– and was then protected until she gave her permission to acknowledge that she was the source of the false report.
Now we have a traditional pillar of US broadcast journalism applying the model to the next Republican to attract national attention. But “60 Minutes” seems to have taken the spirit of resistance journalism a step further than just pushing the hidden agendas of people unwilling to get on the record. The attack on Governor DeSantis on Sunday evening did not even include key facts presented by witnesses speaking on the file.
Aaron Blake writes at the Washington Post:
