The media focuses on emotive conflict —and so far, 2024 is presenting a blizzard of it

The media focuses on conflict, discord, and dissension, of which there is an abundance today.This poses a problem for Joe Biden, who works behind the scenes to avoid conflict, discord, and dissension. It’s made-to-order for Trump.

Israel’s war in Gaza has ignited student activism on dozens of campuses nationwide. On Tuesday night, hundreds of police officers in riot gear began arresting anti-war demonstrators at Columbia University, about twenty hours after protesters occupied a campus building — further escalating a crisis that has consumed Columbia and spread to many other universities.

The conflict is splitting the Democratic Party. A recent survey shows that cable news viewers — who tend to be older — are more supportive of Israel than non-cable viewers. People who get their news primarily from social media, YouTube, or podcasts — who tend to be younger — generally believe Israel is committing war crimes.

The conflict is fueling Trump, who yesterday urged college presidents to be tougher on the protesters, whom he called “raging lunatics,” and commended New York City police officers for arresting students. Trump also suggested without any evidence that the protesters were hired by liberal groups to draw attention away from the surge of migrants at the border. “To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately.Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students.”

Trump’s strong a law-and-order message about the protests is at sharp odds with his presidential campaign — which is itself a protest movement centered on his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, that the January 6 rioters were “patriots,” and that Biden is behind Trump’s current federal and state prosecutions.

Fox News and other rightwing media outlets are amping up these claims, creating a media echo-chamber of grievance-based lies.

The rest of the media is transfixed by Trump’s trials, which Trump is using to magnify the alleged conspiracy against him. On Tuesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan, who is presiding over Trump’s trial for election fraud, found Trump in contempt of court for attacking witnesses and jurors, and warned he might jail Trump if his attacks on the judge, prosecutors, and witnesses continued.

Those who are protesting the bloodshed in Gaza have done so peacefully; Trump has incited a violent insurrection against the United States. The Gaza protesters are not demonizing individuals or groups (I’ve witnessed several protests and have not heard or seen any antisemitism, although apparently there have been some such incidents). Trump and his loyalists spew hate. People concerned about Gaza are not promoting lies; Trump is basing his entire campaign on lies.

Trump does not rule out the possibility of political violence around the election. “If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he says. He claimed on Truth Social that a stolen election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

“He’s in full war mode,” says his former adviser and occasional confidant Stephen Bannon. Trump’s sense of the state of the country is “quite apocalyptic. That’s where Trump’s heart is. That’s where his obsession is.”

President Biden, meanwhile, has remained above the fray, seeking to push Netanyahu toward a cease fire in Gaza, while ignoring Trump’s taunts and threats.

Both waves of conflict — over the war in Gaza and over Trump’s prosecutions and allegations — are dominating the media. They are the biggest stories in America.

This poses a challenge for an incumbent president doing everything within his power to keep the ship of state moving steadily forward, and who by temperament and inclination continues to focus on the slow, steady, behind-the-scenes work of governance.

Biden and his team engaged in six months of quiet negotiating to get House Speaker Mike Johnson to support Ukraine aid. According to counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, “[Biden] just kept saying, ‘Keep talking. Keep working.’ You know, keep finding ways to resolve differences. And that was his direction.”

Biden is working equally hard behind the scenes to get humanitarian aide to Gaza and stop Netanyahu from ordering an attack on Rafah.

Biden still lives in the world of rational, non-emotive messaging. He has been in politics for 50 years. He is steeped in rational, conventional argument — the kind that former President Dwight Eisenhower delivered.

I’m old enough to remember when Eisenhower talked to the nation. Despite Ike’s flat delivery, which was often punctuated with throat-clearing, the public listened and responded, usually positively, because Americans in the 1950s were able to process non-emotive messages. They might disagree with him, but he gave reasons for what he did or proposed and invited voters to deliberate rationally.

The media of that era felt duty-bound to transmit those non-emotive messages.

By “non-emotive,” I mean messages that are straightforward. They don’t cause the recipient to be entertained or inspired, don’t play on fear or bigotry or any other strong negative emotion, don’t stir conflict.

This is no longer the way the media transmits information or how Americans process it. Now, a message has to pack a wallop to be heard.

When it comes to messaging about his accomplishments, neither Biden nor his surrogates do the emotive work that our media ecosystem demands and the American public is now primed to respond to.

When voters tell pollsters they think Trump is “stronger” than Biden on foreign policy or the economy, the “strength” they feel comes from the emotions Trump stirs up — rage, ferocity, vindictiveness, and anger. These emotions are connected to brute strength.

Trump gets attention because the media lives off emotive messaging. The more charged the message, the more likely viewers will stop scrolling. The fiercer the words, the more likely readers will take notice.

Everything Trump says and posts is designed to spur an emotional reaction. His anger, ridicule, and vindictiveness are intended to elicit immediate, passionate responses. They don’t inform. They don’t truthfully explain. They just stir up.

Biden projects strength the old-fashioned way — through mature and responsible leadership. But mature and responsible leadership doesn’t break through today’s media and reach today’s public nearly as well as brute strength.

So what’s the answer? Not for Biden (or his Democratic allies and surrogates) to abandon facts, data, analysis, and reasoned argument.

The best response is for Biden to continue the hard work of governing, including putting maximum pressure on Netanyahu to achieve a cease fire in Gaza.

Biden and other Democrats must draw the starkest possible contrast between Trump’s unhinged childishness and Biden’s competent adulthood.

Rather than sell Biden’s policies, sell Biden’s character. Rather than dispute Trump’s arguments, condemn his temperament.

And ask Americans the following question: Do they want a sociopathic infant at the helm again, or a sane grown-up?

Robert Reich is a professor at Berkeley and was secretary of labor under Bill Clinton. You can find his writing at https://robertreich.substack.com/.