‘Racist’ tweets? News media grapple with how to label Trump’s latest attacks

When is it time to call a statement “racist,” and when is it time to let others characterize it that way?

News organizations wrestled with that question Sunday and Monday after President Trump tweeted a series of statements aimed at four members of Congress, all women of color. Trump’s comments — “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” — drew a thunderously negative reaction, with many people, especially Democrats, calling the tweets straight-up racist.

But not everyone in the mainstream media was so direct.