For the most part, here in Atlanta we'd watched from afar as candidate and president-elect Donald Trump tweeted away during his campaign and leading up to his inauguration.
We could enjoy the show along with his more than 20 million followers (he follows just 42 accounts) as he unleashed a tirade on someone or some issue, which he did with regularity for months.
And then he trained his social media cannon on Atlanta.
Democratic congressman John Lewis fired first, though. In an interview aired last week on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lewis said he’d boycott Trump’s inauguration. His presidency was not legit, Lewis said.
Trump in his customary manner fired back.
“Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!”
Within minutes, the AJC’s Greg Bluestein shared Trump’s tweet, and the story grew to involve Atlanta’s iconic characters and family names, at least one blundering politician, the thousands of residents of Lewis’ congressional district, and, of course, your favorite local newspaper.
As the story roiled for days, perhaps its strangest chapter was a phone call from Trump to Andrew Young, civil rights icon, former Atlanta mayor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
As our Jim Galloway explained:
The call from Trump Tower had been arranged by Martin Luther King III and his sister Bernice King, and came while Young was in Nashville, in the midst of a newspaper interview that had followed a breakfast speech.
“We talked about you. And really, we ended up all having hope for your administration,” Young told Trump, congratulating him on his choices for secretary of state and treasury.
And about Congressman Lewis. “John is a good … a very good man, he is really a saint,” Young assured Trump. “He is kind of disillusioned right now, but he will come back.”
After they were disconnected, Young told the newspaper reporter present that both parties, Lewis and Trump, were in the wrong.
"John is a saint. But I disagree with him on the Russians rigging the election. Not that they did not try. And not that they do not interfere in U.S. politics," Young explained — once he was back in Atlanta.
Young’s words showed just how polarizing the story was, and how hard some tried to navigate the strong emotions on both sides.
Another stunning chapter in this story played out, of all places, in Gwinnett County.
The AJC's Tyler Estep was the first to report that Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter called Lewis "a racist pig" on social media.
Hunter said he regretted "the choice of words" about Lewis at the commission's Tuesday meeting.
“I will not allow baseless accusations of racism against me or anyone,” Hunter said. “I’ve learned a lot from this and will continue to work hard to serve all of District 3, and all the people of Gwinnett County.”
Some are calling for Hunter to resign.
All of this demonstrates starkly for metro Atlanta the strong emotions Trump’s presidency will evoke.
And it reminds us at the AJC how thorough and diligent we’ll need to be as we bring you news, insight and information about how Georgia will be impacted by decisions coming from the Trump White House.
Interest in Georgia will remain high, with two Georgians being named to the president’s cabinet.
Our coverage of the original Trump-Lewis dispute offers an example of how hard this can sometimes be, and how readers can perceive our actions in vastly different ways.
So back to Trump’s original tweet.
We made an early decision in our coverage. It was clear that this dispute between Lewis and Trump would continue with supporters on both sides hurling invective at each other with little chance that common ground could ever be found.
Dozens of fellow Democrats in Congress said they would join Lewis’ boycott. Folks on the other side called for support of the new president and unity for the country.
The best thing we could do was to examine the accuracy of what Trump said, and report on what residents of the district thought of the characterization. In other words, busy ourselves with interviewing citizens and pursuing and checking facts.
The result was a headline that said “Atlanta to Trump: Wrong.”
We found that Trump’s characterization of the 5th District simply didn’t hold up. We pointed out that citizens who lived there knew so, and objected strongly to the brush he painted them with. Many also defended Lewis as a hero and said the all talk, no action criticism went too far.
Our coverage got reactions from both sides.
One e-mailer said:
“It appears that your newspaper is biased in favor of John Lewis. Please keep in mind that many of your readers do not support his recent actions toward Donald Trump.
You also have a headline article about a Gwinnett official exercising free speech, being bullied to resign.”
At the AJC Editor Facebook page, another reader said:
“Thankful for journalists who dig into a story - past a social media post - and report the real facts.”
And the headline that picked up on Trump’s characteristic usage of “wrong” got reaction around the country, with plenty of web sites or Twitter account offering comments on it.
In the end, we will continue to dig out the facts, an especially important job in this time of criticism of news organizations and the proliferation of fake news.
As the Trump-Lewis dispute demonstrates, those facts are of interest to both supporters and opponents of our new President Trump.
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