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

As journalists, should we "fight every day to save our democracy?" If so, what should we specifically do?

Incidentally, the publisher of the newspaper I work for is a friend of Rob Reiner. (That is only a part-time job I hope to leave soon.)

 

Someone born in 1989 could seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024, and that person will have seen his party win the popular vote exactly once in his lifetime --- with an honest chance that will still be the case when he qualifies for Social Security. Yet that party will have controlled major portions of tens of millions of peoples' lives during that time.

Call it what you will, but it ain't a Democracy.

 

Taylor Swift '24

 

How do you define democracy?

I just checked The Associated Press Stylebook to see if it had a definition but it didn't.

 

Call me old-school, but I always thought that journalists holding people in power accountable and performing the function as the Fourth Estate was the way to "save democracy."

In other words, doing our jobs.

 

How good of a job do American newspapers and other media outlets do in 2023 of "holding people in power accountable?"

 

The AP style book is not a dictionary.

 

If reporters spent less time on social media and more time calling sources, we might be in a better place.

 

She will be eligible by Election Day.

 

At least at the national level, it appears to depend on who's in power.

 

Who's we? Republicans have been fighting every day for years to ruin it.

 

Here's the thing. A journalist can only show what someone did (or likely did).

It's up to that person's constituents, colleagues, employers or a justice department to decide what to do with that information (investigate further, dismiss them, impeach them, indict them) that would, in effect, "hold them accountable."