It’s past time to retire covering rallies as signs of momentum
Here we go again. Apparently the media can’t quit reporting on rallies or accurately convey their relevance to the campaign. If we hadn’t learned, or had forgotten, when it comes to campaign rallies, size doesn’t matter, including Donald Trump’s recent event in the Bronx.
The lesson should have been apparent after the 2020 election when Trump ignored COVID-19 protocols in the prevaccine era to meet with his masses while Joe Biden avoided crowds and somehow won the election.
Yet here we are, four years later, fawning over a Trump campaign event in New York City.
Unsurprisingly, the Fox News headline was glowing — “Trump vows to ‘save’ deep-blue New York City in massive, historic Bronx rally” — and the article led with the Trump campaign’s crowd estimate of 25,000 supporters. The same 25,000-30,000 estimate made it to Fox News’ on-air chatter as well.
Other mainstream news outlets often began their stories with positive coverage and buried important context that might have downplayed the event. For example, according to Axios’ “Why it matters: The unusual sight of Trump speaking to several thousand people in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in deep blue New York is a sign of the realignment happening between the two parties.”
While the article didn’t amplify the campaign’s attendance figures, it overstated the importance of the crowd and the rally. Even though outside estimates pinned the crowd at closer to 3,500 or........
© Roll Call
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