{"id":1346,"date":"2026-06-10T09:39:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:39:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:39:05","slug":"veteran-reporter-tells-complicit-media-to-stop-enabling-trump-or-go-to-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1346","title":{"rendered":"Veteran reporter tells complicit media to stop enabling Trump or \u2018go to hell\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As the smoke finally started to clear following Joe Biden\u2019s victory in the 2020 election, and Donald Trump\u2019s violent attack aimed at overthrowing our government just two months later, I wrote a piece castigating our disintegrating working press in the United States.<\/p>\n

Read more MAGA erupts as Pope Leo meets with Bad Bunny<\/a><\/p>\n

The thrust of my write was this: If you were addressing ANY Republican about ANYTHING, your first question simply had to be, \u201cDo you believe Donald Trump lost the 2020 election?\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, The Big Lie that Trump had won was the catalyst of his Big Attack on January 6th, and simply had to be put down, refuted and corrected for the record by all means possible.<\/p>\n

If after this question was asked, the Republican either refused to answer, was evasive in any way, or worse, flatly denied that Biden won, the follow up had to be this: \u201cShow us the proof you have to back up these dangerous assertions.\u201d<\/p>\n

If they could not provide any proof, the interview was over. <\/p>\n

Done.<\/p>\n

Finished.<\/p>\n

There was simply no logical reason to continue talking to a desperate pusher selling a noxious, destructive lie aimed at poisoning the lifeblood of our Democracy.<\/p>\n

Allowing dangerous propaganda and people like that to litter our airways and print, wasn\u2019t just irresponsible journalism, it was aiding and abetting Trump\u2019s attack on America.<\/p>\n

Besides, he had Rupert Murdoch\u2019s goons at Fox for that.<\/p>\n

Well, we all know by now that my pleas to shut these people down were roundly ignored \u2014 if they were even heard at all \u2014 and because of that, 2024 might be the date that\u2019s etched in the tombstone marking the end of the great American experiment.<\/p>\n

The Big Lie hangs over America like a dark, menacing cloud, while too many in our broken press carry on like it is just another sunny day.<\/p>\n

As a longtime member of that press, I have sadly come to understand that incompetence, ratings, and money are behind their failures to do even the most minimal thing required of sound journalism: report the truth.<\/p>\n

Their inability and\/or refusal to sound the alarms of what was coming if God forbid Trump won another term were amateurish and outrageous. How could they have ignored the biggest story since the Civil War?<\/p>\n

Why weren\u2019t Democracy Desks set up in every newsroom across America that did nothing but report on Trump and his Republicans\u2019 brazen attack on our nation that was so obviously buttressed by a corrupt, lying, bought-off Supreme Court, whose majority they<\/strong><\/em> appointed?<\/p>\n

Wasn’t it obvious what would happen if Big Lie Republicans ever regained Executive power again? Was there ever really any doubt among the people who were paid to pay attention that Trump would get the blessing of his court to be just as disgusting and anti-American as possible by carrying on as their mad king?<\/p>\n

How could this have been missed by the very people whose job it is to cover these lowlifes? <\/p>\n

It took no time at all for Trump to lay waste to our government, and for armed troops to litter our streets.<\/p>\n

Read more Eye-popping letter from deep red Trump country blasts president as \u2018low-IQ idiot\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

He is placing his name everywhere and on everything, and God only knows how much of our money has landed inside his bottomless pockets. <\/p>\n

Fascism is here, and our damn media barely fired a warning shot. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m long past the stage where this shoddy, irresponsible \u201cjournalism\u201d has broken my heart, and am now just plain furious. Surrendering the facts to Trump during the past decade has to be one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

So when the orangey, puffy Trump arrived on the set of Meet the Press<\/em> Sunday, and started with his anti-American bilge about elections being rigged again, I was shocked when he got some actual pushback from the show\u2019s host, Kristen Welker.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what went down:<\/p>\n

Trump lied that the California gubernatorial race was \u201crigged.\u201d<\/strong>
\u201cIt\u2019s four days and they aren\u2019t even close to counting ballots,\u201d he harrumphed. <\/strong>
Welker correctly asserted that this is how California has always counted votes, and Trump shot back:<\/strong>
\u201cDo you know why they\u2019re doing that? Because they\u2019re cheating on the election.\u201d<\/strong>
Welker asked for any evidence of cheating, and Trump started his tantrum:<\/strong>
\u201cThey\u2019re crooked, just like you\u2019re crooked, your press is crooked. And Meet the Press is crooked.\u201d<\/strong>
Welker pushed back again, and Trump whined like baby:<\/strong>
\u201cYou\u2019re either crooked or you\u2019re stupid. You play right into their hands with this crap. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they\u2019re rigged.\u201d<\/strong>
Trump then arrived where always does, and hauled out the Big Lie that he won the 2020 US presidential election.<\/strong>
Walker wasn\u2019t having that and pressed on. That\u2019s when the grotesque Trump, who was nearly in tears at this point, said this:<\/strong>
\u201cLet\u2019s call it quits because I\u2019ve had enough.\u201d <\/strong>
But not before snarling: <\/strong>
\u201cThank you, darling. Have a good time.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And just like that he was gone, like a loud fart pushed out of the room by an air-purifying exhaust fan … <\/p>\n

Congratulations to Welker for holding her ground and her nose during that interview, but the damage has been done. The America-attacking Trump\u2019s Big Lie is louder than ever, and our press, with a few exceptions, has all but gone quiet correcting it.<\/p>\n

On Monday afternoon, Trump\u2019s pointy-nosed puppet, Speaker Mike Johnson, pawed through the halls of Congress parroting his master\u2019s election lies while a clutch of reporters nipped at his little heels. Johnson who lies as he breathes like so many of these odious Republican Christians was asked for proof the recent California election was \u201crigged.\u201d<\/p>\n

He somehow said this without generating a lightning strike: \u201cLook, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it’s impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively that something is wrong here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, we sure do, sport … <\/p>\n

Anybody who is still somehow wondering what November\u2019s gerrymandered, Jim Crow elections are going to look like got another preview the past few days. Any close race led by a Democrat will be rigged by \u201cdiabolical\u201d means, and any close race led by a Republican will be just peachy-keen.<\/p>\n

This is all the result of that Big Lie which has never been properly addressed as the anti-American cancer it most certainly is, and corrected once and for all for the record.<\/p>\n

While I long ago abandoned the shoddy, corporatized media for the clear air of independence, it won\u2019t stop me from demanding that my former misguided brethren finally do their jobs, and set the record straight on that lie.<\/p>\n

So one more time, people: Any time you are talking to any Republican before Election Day like you did Johnson Monday, the first thing you ask is who won the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

If they won\u2019t answer, or deflect and lie like Johnson, then correct them for the record, and shut them and the interview down. Do not give them a platform to perform for their sickly orange king, while helping him attack the foundation of this country.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been more than enough of this the past decade.<\/p>\n

Do that? You are doing your job.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t do that? Go to hell.<\/p>\n

D. Earl Stephens is the author of \u201cToxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump\u2019s Very Important Letters\u201d and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Billionaire title becomes an anchor in California governor\u2019s race<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the smoke finally started to clear following Joe Biden\u2019s victory in the 2020 election, and Donald Trump\u2019s violent attack aimed at overthrowing our government just two months later, I wrote a piece castigating our disintegrating working press in the United States.The thrust of my write was this: I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nVeteran reporter tells complicit media to stop enabling Trump or \u2018go to hell\u2019 - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1346\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Veteran reporter tells complicit media to stop enabling Trump or \u2018go to hell\u2019 - 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