Answering for Criminal actions or Unjust Persecution: The media portrayl of Donald Trump's Hush Money Trial

   

  

    

    Since his presidency, Donald Trump has faced extensive legal battles and the Media has particularly covered his legal troubles. Beginning on April 22 was one of Trump's most contentious legal battles yet, with the hearings for the former president's alleged violations of the gag order placed on him. The perceptions of such hearings vary widely, with differing media outlets painting the hearings and overall trial as an unjust act in order to artificially ruin the chances of the former president from winning the 2024 election, while other media outlets contend that the hearings and trial are Trump answering for his own criminal actions. 

    

    In the CNN article "Takeaways from Day 6 of the Donald Trump criminal hush money trial" authors Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell present the trial in a positive light while Trump is a negative one. The authors purposefully include testimonies from the judge overseeing the case in which the Judge himself states that "your client is violating a gag order" to demonstrate that Trump is violating the law and orders from a Judge and should be held accountable (Herb et al. 2024). They also include the bolded words subsections of "Gag order hearing goes badly for Trump" and "Judge says Trump lawyers are ‘losing all credibility’" in order to portray the trial as somewhat of a mismanaged self-annihilation by Trump himself (Herb et al. 2024).

    Converse to the CNN article, FOX News portrays the gag order and trial as an unjust action against the former president in the article "NY vs. Trump trial resumes as former president fights off gag order allegations." The article includes quotes from Trump himself such as "I'm not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me" in order to portray the case as legal abuse in which the former president is unfairly and singularly scrutinized by the legal system (Hagstrom 2024). The article also utilizes the words of "disgrace" and "unconstitutional" on many occasions to describe the case and hearings (Hagstrom 2024). 

    Overall, the diversity of media coverage over the same event demonstrates just how impactful the media is at controlling the narrative that they choose.

References: 

Herb, Jeremy, et al. “Takeaways from Day 6 of the Donald Trump Criminal Hush Money Trial | CNN Politics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 23 Apr. 2024, www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/politics/takeaways-from-day-6-of-the-donald-trump-criminal-hush-money-trial/index.html.

Hagstrom, Anders. “NY vs. Trump Trial Resumes as Former President Fights off Gag Order Allegations.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 23 Apr. 2024, www.foxnews.com/live-news/april-23-ny-vs-trump-trial-gag-order.