The second Lester Holt of NBC Information reduce into a press release from President Donald Trump. NBC Information by way of YouTube

When CBS, NBC and ABC reduce away from President Donald Trump’s information convention on the White Home on the night of Nov. 5, they took pains to clarify why they have been shutting off the nation’s commander-in-chief.

It was a second that for me, as a journalism historian, carried echoes of the 1954 takedown of one other flamboyant populist demagogue, Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Making false accusations

The important thing cause, the networks defined, was that Trump had made false claims in regards to the integrity of Tuesday’s presidential election. As poll counting signaled the rising probability that he would lose to former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump accused the Democrats of attempting to steal the election from him.

“They’re attempting to rig an election, and we will’t let that occur,” Trump mentioned.

The networks’ anchors criticized the president for peddling false claims to assist his vanishing hopes for retaining the presidency. So did a few of Trump’s staunchest allies.

President Donald Trump addresses the press on Nov. 5, 2020.

An echo from historical past

Others have earlier drawn parallels between Trump and McCarthy, together with journalist Peter Beinart, who wrote in The Atlantic that “McCarthy constructed his political profession on demagoguery, intimidation, and a cult of persona – not tangible achievements or coherent concepts.”

McCarthy rose to fame and recognition by exploiting People’ worry of communism. He smeared his political opponents with accusations that they have been communists.

Because the information media later did with Trump, they helped create the spectacle of “McCarthyism” by offering McCarthy the means to make baseless expenses in opposition to political opponents.

McCarthy exploited a key weak point within the mannequin of so-called “goal” journalism: the observe of journalists to report what politicians say, with out questioning whether or not what they’re saying is factual.

McCarthy “lied with such boldness that he distracted a nation and shot it filled with mistrust,” one author mentioned.

In 1954, the senator’s excesses have been uncovered. The U.S. Military accused McCarthy of searching for preferential remedy for one in every of his aides. Throughout the televised Senate hearings, he charged that one in every of Military lawyer Joseph Welch’s associates had ties to a communist group.

The well-known change between communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy and Military lawyer Joseph Welch.

An emotional Welch then responded by saying, “Till this second, Senator, I feel I by no means actually gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.”

Welch went on to famously scold McCarthy: “You’ve got accomplished sufficient. Have you ever no sense of decency, sir, in the end? Have you ever left no sense of decency?”

The media turns

It was that second from 1954 that I regarded as the information broadcasts reduce away from President Trump.

“We now have to interrupt right here, as a result of the president made a lot of false statements, together with the notion that there was fraudulent voting,” mentioned Lester Holt, the anchor of “NBC Nightly Information,” as his broadcast reduce away from the president’s speech. He added, “There was no proof of that.”

David Muir, anchor of “ABC World Information Tonight,” was much more direct: “We’re not witnessing anybody stealing something tonight.”

CNN and Fox Information continued to broadcast the information convention however later reported that Trump offered no proof for his claims of vote fraud.

Longtime allies shift

A few of Trump’s loyal defenders, together with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, criticized the president for his baseless expenses.

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After Welch’s rebuke of McCarthy’s baseless claims, thousands and thousands of viewers watching the hearings lastly had sufficient of the senator. His immense nationwide recognition disappeared. He was censured by Senate colleagues, ostracized by the GOP and – lastly – ignored by the press. He died three years later, an alcoholic and a damaged man, at age 48.

It’s too quickly, after all, to know whether or not Trump meets the identical destiny as McCarthy.

Chris Lamb doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or group that may profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.