As Republicans gather in Milwaukee, news outlets grapple with covering their rhetoric

Analysis by Oliver Darcy, CNN

Milwaukee (CNN) — News organizations are being confronted this week with a thorny challenge.

In the wake of former President Donald Trump narrowly surviving a horrific assassination attempt, executives are more cognizant than ever about the fraught political environment in which they are operating. But news outlets also understand that they must offer audiences clear and direct coverage of theRepublican National Convention.

That means not being afraid to call out Trump and the GOP for any promotion of misinformation and/or conspiracy theories. It means not legitimizing and normalizing the radical nature of the party. And it means being blunt about how some of Trump’s avowed plans would upend American democracy and warp the foundational principles embedded within the fabric of the country.

Threading that needle will surely prove to be no easy task, especially as Trump’s allies work the refs in the news media and attempt to place any discussion about the threats posed to democracy outside the Overton Window. Already, on Monday, that strategy was on display on opening night at the RNC, with Donald Trump Jr. berating an NBC News reporter for having the nerve to ask tough — but fair — questions about the Republican Party’simmigration proposals.

“Even 48 hours later, you couldn’t wait,” Trump Jr. exclaimed, scolding the reporter. “You couldn’t wait with your lies and with your nonsense. So just get out of here.”

Broadcast television outlets will have, perhaps, the most difficult balancing act this week, given the eyes of the nation will quite literally be on their programming. Will they cede their platforms to bad-faith actors? Will they carry the speeches from politicians and others who they know to be lying to their audiences? And if they do air brazen lies to millions, how aggressively will they fact check in the immediate moments afterward?

Over the course of this campaign cycle, too many news organizations have inexplicably declined to showcase clear-eyed judgment and recognize that the GOP has been disfigured from its former self, becoming far more extreme in nature over the years. This isn’t the Republican Party of the 1990s. But some news executives seem hellbent on covering the party as if it were.

That said, there were promising signs on Monday night, with regard to RNC coverage. Television news outlets, by and large, exercised caution about who they beamed into living rooms and offered viewers important context on the speakers and what they were saying. The coverage was not without flaws, but showed that news organizations were doing their best to meet the difficult moment in the challenging live setting.

Given the stakes for the country, hopefully responsible coverage will win the week, instead of the type that turns a blind eye to anti-democratic and extreme behavior.

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