The Boston Globe offered a glimpse into a possible American future Saturday — one with President Donald Trump. The Globe published “a front page in Trump’s America” Saturday on the cover of the “Ideas” section. The fake front page’s headlines read “Deportations to begin,” “US soldiers refuse to kill ISIS families” and, ironically, “Trump on Nobel prize shortlist.”
The Globe’s editorial page editor Ellen Clegg told Reuters that the project was executed by the editorial staff and had no involvement from the newsroom. No other major metropolitan daily newspaper has done political satire on this level in Clegg’s 30 years working for the Globe, she told Reuters.
This is satire at its least funny and most terrifying. The Boston Globe, one of the largest metropolitan papers in the country, is taking a stand against Trump without feeding his positive exposure.
At first glance, it seems like something straight out of The Onion. But the Globe’s editorial team did its research. The articles are written like any other Globe article, with information pulled directly from Trump’s policies and speeches. This is real life.
This is the Globe’s way of making the country confront a future with Trump. This is what being supportive or indifferent of Trump’s campaign entails. Supporters and apathetic Americans alike have to be OK with this bleak picture.
The fake opinion page most likely won’t change the minds of any Trump supporters — if they haven’t seen the light by now, it’s hopeless — but it will hopefully incite thoughts in those passively laughing along with Trump. The Donald thrives off of people talking about him. The more his name comes up, the stronger he becomes.
Trump is under a spotlight in a way no other presidential candidate has been before. People get so caught up in the toupee and outlandish behavior that they don’t realize the presidential election isn’t a reality show. It’s the future. Trump has turned the media into his own circus, and he’s the ringleader. It’s all fun and games until Trump actually wins the election.
Whatever the media have done so far in spreading anti-Trump sentiment has not worked. The man still has a thriving campaign. But at least people are talking about the Globe’s bold editorial.
It’s a testament to how far a news organization can go without totally overstepping its bounds. Yes, this is very obviously a product of the Globe’s editorial board, but the sheer time, energy and dedication to make this shows how motivated the Globe is to not get Trump elected.
Because the Globe can’t be opinionated in its reporting of Trump, the fake section is the newspaper’s way of objectively predicting the future.
This is the antithesis to the Globe’s January endorsement of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the Democratic primary.
This isn’t a subtle jab to Trump by exclusively using unflattering photos of him. This is media war. The entire editorial team devoted time to write the fake stories, and the Globe had to spend money to print this page in color and distribute it to subscribers. The Globe is making a statement with both the power of its words and the power in its pocket. That’s how much it cares.
The Globe is putting its credibility on the line for publishing something of this magnitude. Some readers are bound to misunderstand the publication’s intentions or get frustrated at its overtly political stance. But the page is obviously fake. It was published in the “Ideas” section and dated for 2017.
Nobody thinks about a post-Trump world. This is a glimpse at a grim future. The future of international relations, not just this country, depends on the outcome of the next presidential election.
Unlike other news outlets, the Globe is definitely not covering Trump for the clicks. It’s not capitalizing on the goofy statements Trump makes at each of his rallies. The editorial page is taking the core values of Trump’s campaign and applying them to reality. In an age with too many voices in the media, this is The Boston Globe’s way of being heard. And its warning to the rest of the world? Stop Trump while it’s still possible.