The true courage in ‘telling it like it is’

During Monday’s press conference on the prospect of National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Chicago, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had a particular message for the news media.

“I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is,” he said, adding, “This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see, where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically by the president's actions.”

As a member of the press, I find a lot to unpack in that short paragraph.

I’m troubled first by the claim that there are not two sides to the story of President Donald Trump’s suggestion that he might send the troops here. There indeed are two sides to the story, and the press would be remiss if it did not report them.

In fact, the greater issue is not an inclination to publish just one aspect of the story, but the very real need to publish all sides. For, it is out of that comparison that discerning readers will be able to make the most judicious assessment of the issue.

Pritzker himself seemed to recognize that point. After he referred to an array of statistics showing that many Republican-led states and cities rank higher than Chicago for violent crime and noted that Chicago ranked 92nd on an FBI assessment of the nation’s 200 largest cities, he urged conservative outlets to include such figures in their reporting.

“Perhaps if somebody from Fox News or from Newsmax is here,” he said, “they’ll cover the fact that Chicago is in much better shape as a result of the work that we are doing to prevent crime.”

That large urban centers have problems with crime is all but undisputed, so the president’s justification for his idea surely also must be included in the reporting. But it seems to me that if they get all the facts, serious readers will be able to determine pretty well for themselves whether Chicago’s streets are “killing fields” or “in much better shape” than other places.

I was also taken by the governor’s description of a “reflexive crouch … where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece …”

On one hand, I, too, am dismayed by the obvious efforts by national outlets of all political stripes to enfold the political ramifications of the actions by all the players — whether it be Trump trying to protect the GOP House majority or Pritzker considering a presidential run — into every controversy involving government. That “horse race” element is not irrelevant, but it is often distracting and usually implies some analysis or interpretation on the part of the writer rather than pure reporting.

Then, on the other hand, I am just as offended by the governor’s claim that reporting on the Trump administration somehow ignores the theme of “authoritarian creep.” Anyone who pays even the most limited attention to political news and does not see elements of that theme, well, is not paying even the most limited attention to political news. It is everywhere in news coverage — in opposition reactions in straight-news stories, in opinion columns and in analysis pieces, pro and con. More to the point, stooping to somehow emphasize it more than is already done would be the equivalent of ignoring key facts of the story or emphasizing “horse race” over substance.

“Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents, and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab,” Pritzker said, apparently to support his view that news reporting is not thorough.

I would counter that, in this sense, “calling it what it is” is rather a declaration of opinion, not fact. And it is the kind of declaration that people on all sides of a question often confuse, because it is difficult for us to separate our personal interpretations of events from the simple facts of the events themselves.

To many observers, Trump’s behavior is obviously “a dangerous power grab.” To many others, it is not that at all but “an attempt to get control of a serious problem.”

It is up to each of us individually to reach a conclusion about which assessment is accurate. Factual, thorough reporting — that is, truly “telling it like it is” — is what helps us get there.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge the World: Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper” is available at eckhartzpress.com.