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Confronting the Monster [1]

['Citizen Earth', 'Greg Dworkin']

Date: 2026-06-08  

The fawning and cooing over the way Kristen Welker handled the interview with President Donald Trump is precisely what is wrong with the American media. As per usual, Donald Trump tried to demean a female reporter of color monstrously—calling her either “crooked or stupid.” Her interview style is generally gentle and seldom belligerent. She asks tough questions, but more often than not leaves the interviewee with plausible deniability. The last time Mr. Trump so visibly crashed out was at the National Association of Black Journalists, when co-host Rachel Scott held his feet to the fire over his past disparaging and baseless comments about black voters and hosting white supremacists at his Mar-a-Lago resort home. Trump also took the opportunity to question former Vice President Kamala Harris’ color, which is a sensitive and controversial issue in the black community due to forced and vile miscegenation stemming from the slave trade. Mr. Trump claimed, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.” He then finished with the question: “So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

Both Scott and Welker practiced what journalism should be, and what used to be what was expected is now heralded. Although the late Tim Russert, my era’s Meet the Press host, was not a darling of liberals, he consistently showed up with the receipts and made his guests routinely twist in the winds of truth. The beleaguered TV news magazine 60 Minutes used to be the weekly appointment to see the rich, powerful, and crooked held to account. As far back as Walter Cronkite telling the nation the truth about the Vietnam War, and letting us know that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, the press was the last refuge of sanity for an often confused and propagandized nation. As annoying as former MSNBC host Chris Matthews could be, the day he confronted then-candidate Donald Trump about the abortion issue was one of the most memorable. He chewed into the would-be president like a dog with a bone until he admitted that jail time was appropriate for a woman who chooses to exercise autonomy over her body.

Most had not seen Mr. Trump backpedal in such an obvious manner, but tough questioning from a white man as loud, crass, and boisterous as he seemed to throw him for a loop.

Although Morning Joe hosts (Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski) have waffled so much on President Trump that they should be covered in maple syrup, one of the show’s other contributors, Jonathan Lemire, makes general attempts at consistent truth-telling about the White House’s lack of integrity. I do not want to minimize the Welker interview; she stood her ground and did not demure at insults and obvious misogyny and racism from the President. As has been the history of America, women may once again come to the country’s rescue. The Kaitlan Collins(s), Welker(s), and Scott(s) will, hopefully, imbue their male counterparts with some courage, who too often duck and cover. So, as much as it was obvious that the President had no answers to real questions, let us not settle for the modicum of journalism we receive as a revelation. In the words of comic Chris Rock, “that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

Your Vote is Still Your Voice (So Scream)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/8/800051989/community/confronting-the-monster/

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