Should we "fight every day to save our democracy?"

Providing an accurate account of what public officials do is one thing — and it’s a very important and difficult thing (to do well).

Just as important and difficult: getting the public to read it.

 

Great point. I'll just add appearances on the 24-hour shit show television outlets.

 

I've long thought the United States was pretty much an oligarchy.
Now, before someone jumps my ass, I haven't looked up the word's definition in years. I recall it being rule by the elite.
As William Goldman once wrote ... follow the money.

 

The AP style book is not a suicide note either.

 

+1 but what you say rarely happens in towns where the citizenry has been beaten down and conditioned to comply, sit down, and shut up.

 

Unfortunately, you got that right.

 

A republic - if you can keep it.

Inert cynicism and an ignorant, lazy electorate aside, we get exactly the politics we deserve. In the case of the press, that usually means putting clicks and ratings above any kind of foundational truthtelling.

Which is how we got Trump. [Les Moonves quote goes here _________.]

But our government has been in thrall to the interests - and money - since the first Gilded Age.

 

We got Trump because Hillary was arrogant and took several states for granted, and because of Bernie's millennial crybabies.

 

Trump should never have been a candidate.

By the time he rode down that escalator, he was long known to the press as a pathological liar and con artist, a subliterate punchline propped up by his father's money.

That he was ever taken seriously as a potential president by anyone in journalism is heartbreaking.

But he sold papers, so

 

"The Press" definitely would made a difference before the elevator ride.

 

Trump the "billionaire" and Art of the Deal "tycoon" was entirely fake, a creation of the New York tabloids and the Forbes magazine money list.

Thus did America fuck around and find out.

 

America the Beautiful Creative was built on fairytales so 24 people, if that many, really care about entirely fake and a creation.