WaPo Editors Make “New Years’ Resolution” on Trump

In their January 1st issue, the editorial board of the Washington Post made a “New Years’ Resolution” regarding the paper’s coverage of Donald Trump going forward into 2017. But if you expected the paper to issue a mea culpa for their disgusting bias throughout the presidential election, you will be disappointed.

“What should be the approach toward the coming Trump administration for those who saw his candidacy as not just unsupportable but dangerous?” the board asked.

After spending the bulk of the piece re-hashing the paper’s position that Trump is “unfit,” that he poses a threat to “democratic norms and civility,” and that his “insults” and “lies” pose a “challenge to a democratic system that has held the country together since the Civil War,” the Washington Post answers that question by saying their job is solely “to evaluate him going forward.”

And boy, do they sound like people ready to put the past behind them:

In practice, that means monitoring to what extent Mr. Trump fulfills his promise to help those who have been bypassed by economic recovery. It means continuing to advocate policies that are essential to keep America safe and to promote peace and liberty overseas. Above all, the task for those who opposed Mr. Trump will be to stand up for the democratic norms that he seemed to threaten during his campaign.

They say that Trump’s record since being elected has been “mixed.” They give him one sentence’s worth of praise for his election night speech and then launch into two full paragraphs of complaints ranging from his tax returns to his feud with the cast of Hamilton.

“Those who opposed Mr. Trump should continue to call attention to these things — not to claim vindication, but to press for a different approach,” they concluded. “The goal should be accountability, not automatic opposition. We do not root for Mr. Trump to fail; we root for the nation to succeed and prosper.”

To break through the nearly-impenetrable doubletalk, here’s what they’re telling their readers: We’re going to keep hammering Trump exactly as we have been, but we’re doing it for AMERICA, not for our own liberal gratification. We’ll be the first ones to celebrate him when he makes speeches praising Hillary Clinton! Totally fair, right guys?!

After the election, some conservatives held out hope that the mainstream media titans would look in the mirror and recognize how far from the path of ethical journalism they’ve strayed. If that hope is still alive, it is very thin indeed.