On this week’s ‘Last Week Tonight,’ John Oliver dissected the Christian nationalist framework, Project 2025. About 100 ultra-right organizations developed this detailed (900+ pages) roadmap for a second Trump term.
“If you’re thinking: ‘OK, Trump’s making big, scary promises, but he did that in 2016 too and he broke a lot of them,’ that is true,” said Oliver on Sunday evening. “Though, he did also go on to do a lot of damage,” such as ending the Iran nuclear deal, withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, separating migrant children from their families at the border and appointing three rightwing supreme court justices.
The short answer to the question posed above: because traditional media aren’t advising voters of the stakes facing democracy, at least not regularly or thoroughly or directly.
.@iamjohnoliver: Project 2025 has produced a 900-page handbook that outlines policies for the next administration if Trump is elected. It proposes eliminating the Head Start program, installing an anti-abortion task force to replace President Biden's reproductive health care one,… pic.twitter.com/lDBHSpf3au
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) June 18, 2024
There are two not-staff-written stories about Project 2025 in the New York Times this year. TWO.
Oliver’s critique triggered reports in Deadline, The Daily Beast, and The Guardian.
The week before Oliver’s show, the BBC pointed out the Christian nationalists who are today’s MAGA movement’s policy fountain plan to abolish the Department of Education. TIME provided a 3-minute read. The Guardian, again, this time referencing U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA8) and his Stop Project 2025 Task Force.
What about The New York Times?
On April 3, a guest essay: Trump’s Backers Are Determined Not to Blow It This Time Around. Notice the words missing from this headline, too.
That’s it for the NYT search for 2024, but Google found a January entry in the NYT Magazine: Inside the Heritage Foundation’s Plans for ‘Institutionalizing Trumpism.’ That’s because this is an interview with the head of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin D. Roberts; they are the driver of Project 2025. It’s not written by a NYT staffer, either. Again, note the missing words in the headline.
The Washington Post?
Like The Guardian, The Post also reported on the Democratic counter-effort. The religion reporter partnered with campaigns to produce Here’s what the Christian right wants from a second Trump term.
Political columnist Philip Bump wrote about Project 2025 on Tuesday (and did not reference Oliver): Trump has unveiled an agenda of his own. Headline is missing words.
Without calling Project 2025 by name in a headline, in June The Post also discussed aprehensions from scientists, mandating military service and potential impacts on women’s health.
The Post is heads and shoulders better than the NYT but insufficiently direct. No one has started reporting on Project 2025, and no one has advised the headline team to signal us when they do.
You should read the non-paywalled BBC and The Guardian for insights the “paper of record” deems beneath it.
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com