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

[I Should Coco]

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."

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.

 

[Liut]

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

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

 

[Liut]

I've long thought the United States was pretty much an oligarchy.
Now, before someone jumps my ash, 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.

 

[Twirling Time]

The AP style book is not a dictionary.

The AP style book is not a suicide note either.

 

[Songbird]

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."

+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.

 

[Tarheel316]

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.

Unfortunately, you got that right.

 

[Azrael]

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.

 

[Songbird]

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

 

[Azrael]

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

 

[Songbird]

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

 

[Azrael]

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 fork around and find out.

 

[Songbird]

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.

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