Tariffs and the media

Dan Froomkin - Reading and watching the dutiful daily coverage of Trump’s trade war, you might well have no idea just how crazy it is.  The reality is this: There’s no good reason for it, it hurts everyone, and it’s arguably going to tank the American and international economies.

So it was a delightful surprise to see CNBC’s senior economics reporter Steve Liesman tell it like it is on his network on Tuesday:

I'm going to say this at risk of my job, Kelly. But what President Trump is doing is insane. It is absolutely insane. It is about the eighth reason we've had for the tariffs. And now he's saying he's putting 50% tariffs on Canada unless they agree to become the 51st state. That is insane. There is just no other way of describing it.

Liesman was simply acknowledging the elephant in the room. Indeed, almost anyone willing to share their reasoned opinion – whether they’re from the right, left, far-right, or far-left – recognizes that this is a trade war with no logic behind it, supported by an ever-growing list of contradictory justifications.

Even the Wall Street Journal editorial board calls Trump’s trade war “the dumbest in history” -- and that, it says, is "being kind."

It is only traditional-media reporters -- their common sense outweighed by their self-righteous refusal to engage in anything remotely like partisan political judgements – who make the trade war sound like something that came about for legitimate reasons.

In a Washington Post story on Wednesday, for instance, reporters Ellen Francis, Maham Javaid, and Terrence McCoy benignly referred to Trump’s batty move to raise tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports as “the latest salvo in Trump’s campaign to reshape America’s trading relationship with the world.” Give me a break.  More