The press helps MAGA target jurors. And it's not just Fox.
Trump has always benefited from unthinking, celebrity-obsessed media.
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Fox News personality Jesse Watters spent the early days of former president Donald Trump’s New York trial attacking and trying to discredit the jury. That’s not surprising — Watters is an unscrupulous MAGA sycophant.
What’s less inevitable, however, is that mainstream media outlets helped Watters to do his worst. Credible reporters have published personal details about potential jurors and have generally treated juror selection as a breathless gossip beat rather than as part of a serious trial with major repercussions for American democracy Judge Juan Merchan, overseeing the case, had to warn media not to report on past or current employment of members of the jury.
Journalists can be an important check on those with power. Trump’s trial, though, is serving as an illustration of how an unthinking press can be weaponized by authoritarians and authoritarian movements to target everyday people and weaken democratic institutions.
It’s also a reminder that Trump’s New York trial for hush money payments and false business filings is itself in part about Trump’s relationship with tabloids and the press. It was those relationships which helped him to silence critics and avoid consequences while he clambered into the White House. And it’s those relationships which will be crucial to his campaign if he’s to win again.
“I’m not so sure about Juror #2”
Watters on Fox used his show last week to attack jurors and suggest that the jury system itself is fatally flawed and unfair to Trump. He said that any juror claiming to be unbiased in the case was a “liar.” He added, baselessly, that some of the jurors were “undercover activists trying to sneak onto the jury” to harm Trump. (Trump quoted Watters on Truth Social — see below — probably violating his gag order.)
Even more damaging, Watters targeted at least one individual juror, broadcasting details about where she lived, where she worked, her marital status, and her fiancé’s industry. (See the clip below, via Acyn.)
Watters then said that if he were Trump, the juror would scare him.
The details Watters revealed were extensive enough that the juror’s friends and family members realized that she was on the Trump jury. She asked to be excused because she felt she could no longer be impartial, and the judge duly released her.
The not very subtle subtext here is that jurors whose identities become publicly available can’t be impartial because they won’t be safe. People singled out as enemies by MAGA tend to be deluged with credible death threats and face horrific harassment.
In 2020, as just one example, Trump cronies baselessly accused Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman of election fraud; she became the target of a relentless online harassment campaign, and was forced to flee her home when pro-Trump demonstrators showed up at her house to shout at her through bullhorns. (Freeman and others targeted by Giulani sued and won $148 million in damages.)
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Watters is obviously a troll and a bad actor; he wants to disrupt the trial on Trump’s behalf. Given the very real danger to jurors, though, you would hope that responsible journalists would be careful about revealing details that could make a juror a target.
Your hopes would be dashed, though. Watters was in fact repeating information he’d gathered from mainstream outlets. ABC News, for example, published an article with extensive details about jurors and then teased it on twitter with the caption, “Here’s everything you need to know about the first seven jurors of Trump’s historic criminal trial.”
After Watters forced a juror to resign and Judge Merchan ordered journalists to stop being irresponsible dopes, some outlets have tried to be more careful. Others, though, have refused to change course. Politico’s live blog continued to provide potentially identifying information about prospective jurors, providing details of occupation, residence, marital status, and hobbies. Inner City Press has done the same.
How the press helps Trump
Trump has long benefited from the fact the press tends to treat him as a fun celebrity story rather than a serious and dangerous political figure.
For decades, journalists covered “the Donald” as a bigger-than-life real estate mogul and a reality television star, and when he ran for president they continued to treat him as a novelty eyeball-attractor. He received some $2 billion in free media in 2016 as networks obsessively covered his rallies and appearances, giving him a huge boost in the primary and probably ensuring he became the Republican nominee.
Trump also used his celebrity journalism connections to kill negative publicity — a habit that relates directly to his current New York trial. As I’ve discussed previously in Public Notice, Trump has been a longtime friend and colleague of David Pecker, chairman of AMI, which published the National Enquirer. Pecker was the first witness in the New York trial, testifying this week about his relationship with Trump.
Pecker regularly bought and buried unflattering stories about Trump. He admitted to purchasing and killing a story by actress Karen McDougal, who had an alleged affair with Trump in 2006, when she was considering going public with the details in June 2016. That was before Trump had officially won the Republican nomination, and could have affected the primary.
Similarly, Stormy Daniels tried to sell the Enquirer the story of her affair with Trump in October 2016. That was weeks before the general election, and just after the Access Hollywood tape was leaked in which Trump boasted about his history of sexual assault. Pecker allegedly alerted Trump, which led to an $130,000 hush money payment.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, went to jail for lying about those payments. Trump’s currently on trial for allegedly falsifying business records to cover them up.
Trump is a creature of publicity and propaganda, with a talent for shameless self-promotion and self-marketing. He’s put his brand on everything from Trump steaks to Trump bibles. As a recognizable figure who regularly says controversial and shocking things, he’s a riveting story for journalists. Some, like Pecker and Watters, are eager to help him directly because they see a close relationship with him as beneficial. Others just cover him uncritically and bask in the reflected controversy, excitement, and clicks.
Celebrity sensationalism threatens democracy
A lot of commenters have pointed out the dangers of “both sides” coverage, which lead journalists to treat Trump and Biden as equivalent in the name of an elusive and misleading fairness. Somewhat less discussed is the fact that members of the press just like Trump and enjoy covering him because he’s weird and funny and outrageous; in comparison, Biden is a decidedly boring beat.
Media coverage of the jury in Trump’s trial suggests that journalists are once again thrilled by the prospect of a Trumpian circus, driven by colorful personalities and salacious conflict. Excitedly broadcasting details of the jurors’ personal lives turns them into mini-celebrities or reality television contestants, part of the scandalous, exciting game show that is Trump’s life.
The trial isn’t about Trump’s exciting game show life, though, even if it does involve his affairs and infidelity. It’s about Trump using his power and connections to keep information about his character from the American public in an effort to influence and distort the 2016 presidential election. Jurors aren’t game show contestants who have agreed to be public figures; they’re randomly selected citizens who are trying, despite some real personal danger, to do their part to defend democratic systems and the rule of law.
Donald Trump has gotten where he is today in part because journalists have treated him, and everything having to do with him, as a “man bites dog” headline for the rubes. That’s why the National Enquirer killed stories for him. It’s why CNN let Trump defame E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was found liable of assaulting, live on air at its town hall. It’s why reporters are gleefully spewing inessential details of jurors’ lives like they’re reporting from the red carpet rather than from a courtroom.
Trump has figured out how to weaponize his celebrity status to advance his agenda of bigotry, authoritarianism, and personal power. It’s long past time for good faith journalists to stop helping him.
That’s it for today
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We’ll be back tomorrow with more Monday. Until then, have a good one and thanks for reading.
Everything written above is sad but true. I have some optomism thought that Trump's celebrity status is starting to lose its lustre. The attendance at his rallies are down in number and enthusiasm. His hoped for masses of people protesting at the court haven't materialized. The trouble with being a celebrity is that you have to remain interesting and Trump has been known for 8 years and he keeps saying the same things. He's still way too close to winning in November but I suspect he's going to make a poor campaigner because he's increasingly self focused. less and less disciplined and (horrors!) predictable to the point of being boring.
The Press has made us all Jurors. Election Day IS Verdict Day.