Panel of journalists address whether it’s the media’s fault Trump is in the White House
Should Donald Trump win the Nobel peace prize?
Though it might have seemed a remote prospect when the US president was tweeting boasts about the size of his nuclear button four months ago, the question has been posed with increasing sincerity since an historic meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea last week.
The South Korean president Moon Jae-in said he believes Trump should win the Nobel. The Republican senator Lindsey Graham thinks so too. One can only speculate on whether Trump deems himself worthy of the accolade.
So when it came up on Monday night’s politician-free episode of Q&A on the ABC, it was not without context. But the panel – made up of journalists including Masha Gessen, NBC’s Katy Tur and New York Times critic Wesley Morris – seemed to think not.
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Gessen, famously critical of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, summed it up thus: “Well if Trump’s claiming complete success [then] let’s give him the Nobel peace prize.
“Come on, he has tweeted insults and now we’re supposed to think that has made an actual policy difference in the world? How idiotic is that conversation,” she said.
But what about Trump’s role in bringing about the meeting and its result, a promise for “lasting peace” and “complete denuclearisation” on the divided peninsula?
“How much is Trump responsible for that? Maybe a little bit, it’s very hard to tell. One of his potentially great qualities is his ability to keep the other side off balance,” journalist and Lowy Institute senior fellow Richard McGregor said.
Tur, who covered the Trump campaign in the lead-up to the 2016 election and is in Australia for the Sydney writers’ festival, agreed to be the “idiot of the bunch” by indulging the idea.
