The rise of hyperbolic White House-related headlines has got to be one of the worst media trends in the Trump era.
Oversold headlines are obviously not new. What seems different now is that the overhyping is all focused on President Trump. Take, for example, this headline published Tuesday afternoon by PBS NewsHour: “Trump says it will be hard to unify country without a ‘major event.’”
Sounds ominous. Is Trump really hoping for a major terrorist attack so that he can take control?
Let’s look at what the story says. Here’s how it opens: “Hours before his first State of the Union, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he wants to unite the country amid “tremendous divisiveness” and hopes he can do so without a traumatic event affecting Americans.”
Oh. Well. And here’s some more context:
Trump spoke about creating a more united country during a lunch with a number of television news anchors. Trump said the United States has long been divided, including during the impeachment of former president Bill Clinton. Trump also said that Americans usually come together during times of suffering….
“I would love to be able to bring back our country into a great form of unity,” Trump told reporters Tuesday ahead of his State of the Union address. “Without a major event where people pull together, that’s hard to do. But I would like to do it without that major event because usually that major event is not a good thing.’”
Trump continued, claiming political divineness predates his administration by many, many years.
“I want to see our country united. I want to bring our country back from a tremendous divisiveness, which has taken place not just over one year, over many years, including the Bush years, not just Obama,” he said.
This isn’t quite the same thing as what was promised in the headline, now is it?
