How Can Anyone Argue That Trump Hasn’t Been Called Fascist Enough Yet?

Or that calling him fascist more would accomplish anything at all?

Is journalism failing miserably at explaining what is really happening to America?

So argues the headline of Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch’s latest column, as well as the text underneath. I disagree, and I think his column is a good example of a tired claim about Donald Trump–era media coverage that is much less substantive than it may appear at first glance.

Bunch’s column is mostly pegged to the first GOP debate and to Donald Trump’s Fulton County police booking, and the first part is fair enough. Bunch mostly just argues that the debate was disturbing, and that both the crowd and some of the participants seemed rather unhinged.

But Bunch’s piece takes a turn for the strange when he sets his sights on that most craven hive of fascism enablement: THE MEDIA. Bunch does not like how THE MEDIA has been covering Trump or the GOP lately. After insisting that “None of the eight people on that stage ‘won’ — only Trump, his angry mob, and a 21st-century brand of American fascism that is the enemy of democracy, the writing on the wall,” Bunch continues: