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Mother Jones: Subpoenas Are Coming. Trump Is Lashing Out. Will the Media Do Its Job?
Subpoenas Are Coming. Trump Is Lashing Out. Will the Media Do Its Job?
We need better journalism for the fight ahead, and we need economic incentives other than the outrage button.
MONIKA BAUERLEIN NOVEMBER 7, 2018 7:33 PM
https://www.motherjones.com/media/2018/11/subpoenas-trump-media/
One of the unseen rituals of journalism each election night is the Hail Mary prewrite—the story you prepare for an election outcome that you don’t expect but must prepare for anyway. In November 2016, it was the “Trump wins” story, and no journalist will forget the feeling of dusting off that prewrite and hitting “publish.”
This year, the unexpected but entirely possible outcome was “Republicans Keep the House,” and it fell to Jeremy Schulman, a senior news editor in MoJo’s Washington bureau and one of those guys who will graciously take on any thankless task. I read it yesterday afternoon as we all sat on pins and needles, and I read it again last night.
“The surprise result will ensure that President Donald Trump has two more years of unified GOP control of the federal government,” it said, “giving him renewed opportunities to dismantle Obamacare, pursue even deeper tax cuts, and impose harsh immigration policies…What’s more, the outcome means that Democrats will still have little authority to conduct oversight of the administration and will lack the power to convene congressional hearings, issue subpoenas, and compel witness testimony.”
How easily things could have gone that way. The odds, after all, were stacked against change: Massively gerrymandered districts. A president who ratcheted his daily deceptions to floridly racist heights, and an electorate that, in many places, faced ever-higher hurdles to the simple act of casting a ballot. And, perhaps most importantly, a humming economy that should have been a huge help to the party in power. No wonder the TV pundits, for so much of the night, clung to the practiced savvy of conventional wisdom and tut-tutted a blue wave.
We need better journalism for the fight ahead, and we need economic incentives other than the outrage button.
MONIKA BAUERLEIN NOVEMBER 7, 2018 7:33 PM
https://www.motherjones.com/media/2018/11/subpoenas-trump-media/
One of the unseen rituals of journalism each election night is the Hail Mary prewrite—the story you prepare for an election outcome that you don’t expect but must prepare for anyway. In November 2016, it was the “Trump wins” story, and no journalist will forget the feeling of dusting off that prewrite and hitting “publish.”
This year, the unexpected but entirely possible outcome was “Republicans Keep the House,” and it fell to Jeremy Schulman, a senior news editor in MoJo’s Washington bureau and one of those guys who will graciously take on any thankless task. I read it yesterday afternoon as we all sat on pins and needles, and I read it again last night.
“The surprise result will ensure that President Donald Trump has two more years of unified GOP control of the federal government,” it said, “giving him renewed opportunities to dismantle Obamacare, pursue even deeper tax cuts, and impose harsh immigration policies…What’s more, the outcome means that Democrats will still have little authority to conduct oversight of the administration and will lack the power to convene congressional hearings, issue subpoenas, and compel witness testimony.”
How easily things could have gone that way. The odds, after all, were stacked against change: Massively gerrymandered districts. A president who ratcheted his daily deceptions to floridly racist heights, and an electorate that, in many places, faced ever-higher hurdles to the simple act of casting a ballot. And, perhaps most importantly, a humming economy that should have been a huge help to the party in power. No wonder the TV pundits, for so much of the night, clung to the practiced savvy of conventional wisdom and tut-tutted a blue wave.
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