stop playing 'hail to the Troll-in-Chief'

One thing reporters seem unwilling to understand about Donald Trump is that he is a troll.

No, not one of those so-ugly-they’re-cute cave-dwellers with unruly orange hair that kids put on the ends of their pencils. Trump is the more insidious modern kind of troll – an internet troll.

He started his most recent meddling in national politics by trolling President Obama with birtherism – pushing the lie that Obama wasn’t born in the USA and was actually a Kenyan Muslim. He trolled all his competitors in the GOP primary (‘Low Energy Jeb,’ ‘Lyin’ Ted’) and then trolled his way to the White House (‘Crooked Hillary,’ ‘Lock Her Up.’) As President, he trolls foreign leaders ('Little Rocket Man'), trolls the justice system (‘Obama judges’), trolls the press (‘the enemy of the people’), trolls anyone he disagrees with (calling Justin Amash ‘one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress’ and ‘a total loser!’) He trolls even when he doesn’t know that he’s trolling (as an example: saying he had been asked by India to mediate its dispute with Pakistan regarding Kashmir).

So it’s no surprise that he’s been trolling the Democratic Party by trolling four freshman members of Congress, all progressive women of color, saying they should “go back” to the countries they came from. (In the troll’s universe, it doesn’t matter that three of them were born here and the life of the fourth, who arrived here at age ten after spending four years in a refugee camp and was so inspired by the American system that she went into public service, is an inspiring American success story. Trolling works best when untethered from the truth.)

Trump's trolling is catnip for reporters. Each reprehensible statement, each comic piece of gobbledygook (covfefe, anyone?), each lie: it all makes for great copy.

But let's be honest: in reporting things this way, the press has avidly colluded in Trump’s trolling. Consider the press's response to the troll's taunts about the four Congresswomen.

After covering the troll’s initial comments, the press reported on the rally in North Carolina where Trump supporters gleefully chanted “Send Her Back,” about Rep. Ilhan Omar while the troll stood astride the stage in silent appreciation. At the same time, a number of reporters wrote anxious articles trying to assess whether the president was racist (nota bene: if someone has spent years trolling people with racist stuff, you don’t need to ask: he has already told you, straight up.) The following day, the press gave many column-inches to the troll when he said what was clearly a lie: that he disapproved of the chant. A day later, they covered the troll’s statement that the people at his rally were “incredible patriots.” And a day on from that, they offered additional ‘think pieces’: The New York Times analyzed how the troll has long employed what the paper called the “old tactic” of “using race for gain” while The Washington Post gave readers a breathless “account of Trump’s tweets and their aftermath … based on interviews with 26 White House aides, advisers, lawmakers and others involved in the response.”

A week’s worth of headlines. A welter of front page stories. A steaming heap of of cable and internet bloviating. All with the troll at its center.

For sure, it’s impossible for the press to ignore the parade of shade the troll throws and the ‘wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more’ attitude he employs. This is the President of the United States, fingers and lips flapping, offering a catalog of racist, misogynist, bullying, xenophobic stuff. It is dreadful and dangerous.

But the problem here is the same problem involved in all trolling. To report the troll’s statements is to give the troll a megaphone. To argue with the troll is to keep the troll front and center, thus feeding his ego and sustaining his performance. To ignore the troll is to cede him the world’s stage. To yell at the troll is to turn into trolls ourselves. No matter what we do, we keep the focus on the troll and his beliefs. With our non-stop explanations and analysis, even with our denunciations, we give the troll respect and legitimize the way he pushes evil bombast and then backs away from it a hair, and, for this tiny change, make him seem presidential.

Here’s the bottom line: In 2016, the troll broke the traditional model of reporting. The press parroted his lies and insults as if they were news without appearing to realize that when you restate a lie on the front page, you make it a truth, and when you echo a bully you are agreeing with him.

And the press is not doing anything differently now.

The troll's gonna keep trolling.

But we don't have to follow. Sure, we need to concentrate on and cover the racism, sexism, bullying, and corruption emanating from the White House and elsewhere in the country. But we can’t let the troll drive that agenda, we can’t let him set the terms of the debate – because that normalizes and even legitimizes his trolling. 

Our job as reporters -- and as citizens -- is to not get caught up in the echo chamber, and to reclaim the agenda from the Troll-in-Chief.