They weren’t the most newsworthy part of Trump’s Florida rally yesterday, but I’m just taking a moment to acknowledge a journalist who is using muted language, in keeping with the charge of journalists to report objectively. It’s perfectly neutral to place, deep in the body of the article, a note about the president’s claim that you need a picture ID to buy groceries, without using any loaded language. Other reporters have suggested that some stores require ID if you pay with a check, but the Post reporter adds no such comment. Introducing the next item as an “incongruous juxtaposition” does present a judgment call. After seeing how Grocerygate lit up Twitter, I can appreciate how the Post’s phrasing shows restraint, making its point while still within the safe zone of journalistic objectivity.
He also pushed for stricter voter identification laws, a cause that is broadly popular among Trump’s conservative base. Trump told the audience in Florida that “if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card. You need ID.”
“We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections, which is why the time has come for voter ID,” he said.
And in an incongruous juxtaposition, Trump also first attacked the veracity of public opinion polls, before repeating a recent incorrect claim of his — that a recent poll showed him to be the most popular person ever in the history of the Republican Party.
Source: ‘Not good, not nice’: At Florida rally, Trump says China has ‘targeted our farmers’
