A Fox News opinion column argues that many journalists have grown so weary of covering Donald Trump that they have stopped checking his statements against the facts. The writer, who has covered Trump on and off since 1987, calls the trend "Trump Exhaustion Syndrome" and says it is driven in part by the constant flow of provocative remarks on social media, which often pushes more consequential stories out of the news cycle.
The columnist points to a recent example. Trump said he had ordered the Justice Department to intervene in an election in Alaska, a statement the writer says the president made openly. He argues that the widespread belief that the department was acting on the president's instructions, including in the case of charges against James Comey, deserved sustained scrutiny. The writer recalls that a longstanding separation between the White House and the Justice Department had been breached in the past and that such a breach by a Democratic president would, in his view, have led to impeachment.
On a recent Sunday, CNN's Dana Bash and CBS's Margaret Brennan pressed Attorney General Todd Blanche about the matter. At one point Blanche said the president had not said the order "on camera." Brennan replied that he had, and the writer notes that the statement was indeed made. The columnist says that when he reviewed major newspapers the following day, the story had largely disappeared from coverage, which he cites as evidence of the syndrome in action.
A second example involves the White House press briefing room. Trump said that while he might move the briefing room, the old swimming pool "will never be brought back" and that he had never considered such a step. The columnist says that claim did not match earlier reporting, including a People Magazine account from the previous month that described Trump suggesting converting the briefing room back to the indoor pool built during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's tenure. The writer says a quick check exposed the inconsistency, and he argues that a shifting position of this kind amounts to a new definition of fake news.
The column also addresses how Trump uses the media. The writer describes him as a skilled manipulator of press attention who knows that inflammatory comments, including remarks about Norway, Barack Obama and the entertainer Nicki Minaj, will draw coverage and can crowd out other stories. The columnist says such remarks deserve a mention in features or on cable programs but tend to squeeze out more important reporting. He also says some comments, such as Trump's order related to a raid on the home of Representative Ilhan Omar, created major news stories that clearly warranted attention.
The writer, who says he is not anti-Trump and describes a personal rapport with him, frames the piece as a critique of press behavior rather than an endorsement of the president's conduct. He acknowledges that half the country voted for Trump and that many are now unhappy about the Iran war and rising gas prices. He concludes that many reporters, by deciding there is no point in challenging a president who often says untrue things, are failing in their basic duty to verify. The column is an opinion piece, and its characterizations of Trump's statements reflect the writer's own assessments.