The Goldwater candidacy/campaign brought about a severe division in the GOP and among conservatives. The problem was his relative extremism. An unprecedented number of sitting Republican office holders publicly rejected his bid to sit in the WH. Yet that number was far less than is the case today with the Trump candidacy.
But that's not all that is different. Mainstream and right wing media entities have publicly rejected Trump as a candidate in numbers that have no precedent (eg, the National Review's special edition making the case that Trump ought not to be allowed anywhere near the presidency). And there are now many other examples as well, including the following, noted by Jay Rosen.
Rosen's beat is media, particularly how it relates to political matters. And he is one of the most astute and brilliant critics of the common tendency in media to frame matters and issues in the neutral "He said/She said" (or X is equivalent to Y, axiomatically) forms.
Quote:10 OCT 2016 3:41 PM
Neutrality has limit cases
For the first time in its existence — almost 50 years — Foreign Policy magazine has endorsed a candidate for President, and decisively rejected Donald Trump. That’s been happening all over. But in explaining why they took this step, the editors made a call that I want to highlight for you. Read this carefully:
"We cherish and fiercely protect this publication’s independence and its reputation for objectivity, and we deeply value our relationship with all of our readers, regardless of political orientation.
It is for all these reasons that FP’s editors are now breaking with tradition to endorse Hillary Clinton for the next president of the United States.
Notice what they’re saying: Because we zealously guard our independence and objectivity, we feel compelled to warn you about Trump. That’s not a rejection of our non-partisan principles, but an extension of them through extraordinary times.
We have a strong relationship with readers in both parties. We would be failing in that relationship if we didn’t speak up now.
We feel that our obligation to our readers thus extends now to making clear the great magnitude of the threat that a Donald Trump presidency would pose to the United States.”
The idea of not taking a side — which has its own integrity — only has that integrity if it has limits built-in. A lot of journalists are discovering those limits this year. This is a good thing.
http://pressthink.org/2016/10/10/tile/list-top-problems-pressthink/#
