WASHINGTON, D.C. April 6 (DPI) – Donald Trump this week became the first US president to be indicted, and while much has been made of the history-making proceedings, the news side of the mainstream US media has so far largely managed to withhold judgement.

While the New York Times pointed out there were “gasps” among right-wing commentators, and The New Yorker lamented “the return of the non-stop Trump news cycle,” much coverage – especially on network television – was surprisingly muted. Some interpreted the restrained coverage as a sign of the gravity of the indictment, and its implications for the next presidential election. Trump announced in November is running for the presidency a third time.

• Parts of the right-wing media, Fox News and DailyMail in particular, regard the indictment as rocket fuel for Trump’s election prospects. Columnists in the WSJ fixate too on the precedent of the indictment and on what they see as a flimsy case against Trump, who is accused, among other things, of paying hush money to a porn star leading up to the 2016 election. But the WSJ has placed surprising emphasis on the arrest of one of its reporters in Russia last week, and that daily coverage has pushed headlines about Trump down the page.
• Meanwhile, the Washington Post and the NY Times are so far downplaying their justice-is-done narratives, apparently letting the legal process sail a little further into its uncharted waters.
• The most notable takeaway so far is that Trump, after all his years of bombast and verbal contempt for US law enforcement institutions, actually showed up for his arraignment. And he did so looking sheepish, even a little defeated. It was notable too that he showed up without his wife and grown daughter.