A Rally So Racist Even The Media Kings of Euphemism Had No Alternative

By Dave Levitan | October 28, 2024 | 2:01pm

Photo via C-Span screenshot

Elections Donald Trump

A Rally So Racist Even The Media Kings of Euphemism Had No Alternative

For once, it was too much even for the headline writers. Legacy media’s writers of the bits that far more people will read than any of the content itself have long tied themselves into knots to avoid the word, that horrible slur that somehow has become worse than the attitudes and acts it describes — there have been “tinges,” or “hints,” or “undertones.” But yesterday, the sheer depravity on display at Madison Square Garden sent the euphemisms flying out the window.

At the New York Times, in its live election updates: “After Trump’s Racist Rally, Campaigns Plan Furious Week of Events.” The R word, plain and simple, without equivocation. The Washington Post, fresh off some truly disturbing thumb-on-the-scale interference from owner Jeff Bezos, followed suit: “Trump rally speakers lob racist insults, call Puerto Rico ‘island of garbage’.”

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Politico: “Fallout spreads from racist rhetoric at Trump’s MSG rally.”

New York Daily News: “Trump’s MSG event turns into ugly racist rally, speakers insult Puerto Ricans, Blacks, Jews.”

The Guardian: “Trump fills Madison Square Garden with anger, vitriol and racist threats.”

And so on. It took the better part of a decade, but apparently we have found the line for many of these publications. Of course, that’s not to say that every outlet passed this absurdly easy test. We had only “ugly rhetoric” from an Axios headline, and “offensive, crude commentary” from CBS News. The Hill managed only an extremely on-brand headline of “5 takeaways from Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally,” and one would need to arrive three subheadings down into the “Guest speakers stir controversy” section before they manage to ring the racism bell. NPR’s post on BlueSky called it a “splashy rally,” so I can only assume someone was dictating and “fashy” was misheard.

There is more than a whiff of too-little-too-late here, of course, but with so little time before election day it is at very least a relief to see the most timid headline writers on the planet find at least a tinge — a hint, an undertone — of a spine.