Analysis: News coverage of Congress certifying the vote must put reality first

A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.

What is the most important fact about Wednesday’s effort to reject the Electoral College votes and stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win? That it’s going to fail. So that fact should probably come first in the news coverage of the next 24 hours.

All the talk of “objections” and “certifications” … all the arguments about the “sedition caucus” and the “surrender caucus” … it may appeal to political junkies but it’s confusing and unnerving to many other viewers and readers. Reporters need to put reality first and take care not to fall into false equivalency and both-side traps.

I liked the way Zach Wade, a senior programming producer for CNN, framed Wednesday in an internal email on Tuesday night: “Congress will certify Biden’s victory despite a brazen attempt by Republicans to test the nation’s democratic guardrails in order to satisfy Trump.” Wade wrote that “the GOP stunt to challenge a fair election could create lasting damage to America’s democracy,” but he put reality first: “Congress will certify Biden’s victory.”

Biden will become president on January 20. That’s the big story on Wednesday. Whatever else happens, on Capitol Hill or on the streets of DC, that should be the lead…

Unreality second

While reality needs to come first, the American info-divide also needs to be addressed in the nonstop coverage. Here’s a new dispatch from Donie O’Sullivan: “A lot of Trump supporters I spoke with in Georgia seem to still genuinely believe Trump is going to overturn the election somehow and they’re pointing to Wednesday as the day the miracle might happen. I’m really not sure how they’ll react when this fantasy doesn’t manifest in the next two weeks.” Read and watch…

>> WaPo’s Dave Weigel shared a similar assessment on Tuesday: “The most revealing question I ask voters is simple: ‘Who do you think will be president on January 21?’ And I have not met a Republican voter who says ‘Joe Biden.'”

So much noise

Oliver Darcy writes: “Over the holiday break, I almost entirely unplugged from the news. I didn’t tweet, I didn’t spend hours reading articles, and I didn’t tune into cable news. It helped clear my mind and (again) realize how much empty noise dominates our news cycle each day. Yes, Trump’s attacks on democracy are an important story. And yes, the Georgia Senate run-offs are also critical. I’m not suggesting otherwise. But I am suggesting that a lot of the Twitter-style chatter is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The bickering, the performative outrage, etc. These things work to cloud the news and don’t serve anyone particularly well. They work to inflame tensions instead of informing audiences. And, I suspect, the noise drives away people who otherwise might dig in…”