In August, journalist Margaret Sullivan wrote her final column for The Washington Post, for which she had worked as a media critic for eight years. Before that, she was Public Editor for the New York Times for four years, a kind of ombudswoman, a contact point for media criticism from readers. Now she has written a book about her career – and about the current problems of journalism in America.

In your last column for the Washington Post you wrote: “Journalists should not, of course, promote Trump’s opponent, but they must be willing to show their readers, viewers and listeners that it would be dangerous to re-elect him.” It’s a difficult balancing act.” After the congressional elections in November, Trump announced that he would run again in 2024. Aren’t we making him bigger than he is if we talk about him too much?

One cannot ignore Donald Trump, he is still too big a factor in American politics for that at the moment. He wasn’t on the ballot paper for the Midterms, but he still played a role. I don’t think you can separate him from this equation of politics and media. What you can do is provide context so you don’t inflate your existence even more. That doesn’t mean you have to write up every statement you make about a story. Instead, one should incorporate facts and evidence into reporting on Trump. But there’s no point in ignoring him.

Most broadcasters and publications are managed as companies. You benefit from reporting on conspicuous politicians like Trump or his new challenger Ron DeSantis. Isn’t there a risk that everything will repeat itself?

Yes, there is.

And how can this be prevented?

You have to show readers and viewers what figures like Trump or DeSantis stand for and what they do. Take DeSantis and his attempt to prosecute alleged voter fraud. His task force from the so-called “Office of Election Crimes and Security” arrested a total of 20 people. DeSantis acted like it was a huge problem. In 2020, more than eleven million votes were cast in Florida. So it’s not a major problem. We don’t even know if these people were guilty. So you can’t just hand such politicians a microphone and let them say anything. We have to present and classify facts.

Do you think the American media has learned anything in the last five or six years?

The media have certainly learned something, I just don’t feel the news has changed enough. The tendency continues to normalize Trump and treat Republicans who pose as mini-Trumps as if they were just politicians when all they really want is to destroy democratic norms, such as a peaceful transfer of office or the recognition of the results of free and fair elections. If you ask me, we have a real problem here.

Some media seem to have drawn the exact opposite conclusion. Under the new boss, the broadcaster CNN is doing everything in its power to appear less biased. Trump has repeatedly accused him of spreading fake news.