Please, media, don’t help Trump lie about the election

It’s vital for journalists to cover voting problems without hyping them.

We don’t know who will win this election. But one thing’s for sure: If Donald Trump loses, he’ll declare victory.

That’s what he did four years ago, and that’s what he’ll do this time. Even when he won the Electoral College in 2016, he lied that the votes of 3-5 million illegal immigrants cost him the popular vote. He wasted taxpayer money trying to prove that blatant lie, but finally gave up.

If Trump loses this time – please, oh, please – he’ll cook up a banquet of hoaxes about cheating. Before a single vote has been counted, he’s already started lying about fraud. And the Russians are helping him by creating fake videos. Republicans are also trumpeting highly suspicious polls and betting markets showing Trump in the lead, in an attempt to prime the MAGA crowd to think the only way he can lose is through cheating.  

The news media must not be collaborators with these anti-democratic conspiracies. They should follow these seven rules of engagement.

1. Keep reminding people that it takes time to count votes.

A count that lasts for days does not mean there’s cheating. In some cases, it means there were a lot of mail-in votes and Republicans wouldn’t allow election officials to count them ahead of time. Or it might mean they’re proceeding carefully to avoid mistakes. The idea that we should know who won by 10 p.m. on Election Night is a myth promoted by Republicans.

2. Don’t reflexively share Trump’s specific lies about election fraud.

If Trump cries fraud, the news media will feel obligated to report it. But they shouldn’t repeat his specific allegations without fact-checking. In 2020, Trump claimed ballots were “dumped in a river” when they weren’t. Last week, Trump posted on social media that “York County, Pennsylvania, received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group.” Yes, it was a nonpartisan voter-turnout organization called the Voter Registration Project. And yes, the forms were checked by authorities, which is routine. No story.

3. Don’t overhype minor problems.

It’s a big country and a strange time. Any problem at the polls is likely to get media attention. But it’s up to the news media to responsibly separate big problems from small ones – and to separate isolated incidents from overall trends. A few polling places opening late are not an insurrection. They may mean Bobby Joe and Wanda May overslept.  

4. When there are problems, differentiate between error and mischief.

People make mistakes. Power outages happen. Computers crash. When there are election issues, reporters need to figure out the causes quickly, before incidents can be cynically exploited. That said, I am worried that right-wing extremists will commit sabotage. Remember that one side wants our election system to look bad. It’s in the fascist playbook: Create chaos and offer yourselves as the cure.

Last week, fires were set at ballot drop boxes in the Pacific Northwest. No suspect has been arrested, and I’m not suggesting right-wingers are responsible. I have no idea. But the attacks show how difficult it is to secure a voting system like ours. 

One thing I do know is that Republicans are hostile toward early voting and other efforts to increase voter participation. A prominent congressman has even suggested bypassing the voters in the selection of electors. Rep. Andy Harris, head of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, said last month that because Hurricane Helene might make it difficult for some voters to cast ballots, North Carolina’s legislature should go ahead and assign the state’s electors to Trump no matter the vote totals. (Harris said later that the idea was part of a “theoretical conversation.”)

If there is right-wing sabotage with the voting process, the media shouldn’t let those incidents help the right wing make the point that our elections are flawed. That would reward the wrongdoers. The headlines should say “Attacks cause voting problems” rather than “Attacks raise doubts about election security.”

5. Don’t help the right wing turn local election workers into targets.

A particularly despicable aspect of Republican election denial four years ago was powerful people persecuting election workers. The most prominent example was Trump and Rudy Giuliani falsely accusing Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman of committing fraud. 

In the famous phone call in which Trump prodded a Georgia official to "find 11,780 votes,” Trump mentioned Freeman by name 18 times, calling her a “professional vote scammer.” Giuliani’s lies about Freeman and Moss were so egregious that he lost a $148 million lawsuit judgment and has been ordered to turn over expensive property, including a penthouse apartment, a Mercedes, and 26 designer watches.

But that vindication for Freeman and Moss happened four years after they were subjected to death threats because of Giuliani’s deplorable actions. The people spreading election hoaxes often benefit in the short term. 

If the media see Republicans trying those same tactics to turn innocent people into targets for domestic terrorists, a harsh spotlight has to go on the accusers, not the victims.

6. If the election is generally well run – and it almost certainly will be – say that. Repeatedly.

As a journalist who worked on newspaper coverage of 10 presidential elections, I know the voting in 2020 was remarkably trouble-free by historical standards. Before it occurred, I was worried about screw-ups that would be exploited by Trump and his allies. But even without anything real that Trump could use as a pretext, he claimed fraud. Every crazy theory was embraced by the right, from an Italian satellite supposedly used to switch votes to an alleged plot masterminded by long-dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Fox News had to pay a $787 million lawsuit settlement for spreading defamatory lies about Dominion Voting Systems. 

So it’s especially important for responsible media to emphasize that votes were cast by legitimate voters and counted by legitimate officials.

7. Make the hoax spreaders pay a price.

To promote public understanding of the election, the news media need to put pressure on fraud accusers to back up their claims with facts. And if they can’t, the lies need to be prominently debunked and the liars must be made into pariahs.

Lack of accountability only encourages mischief. Republicans can’t be allowed to spread hoaxes, see their hoaxes debunked, and then move on to the next hoax without any consequences.

The media need to treat these people as enemies of democracy. Because they are.