“I think it’s a very it’s a dangerous time for the country. I think it’s a dangerous time for almost all of our constitutional guarantees and a free press and free speech are among the most important constitutional guarantees. So, yes, I think it’s a dangerous time …”
That’s how Richard Tofel answered a question Edwin asked about this moment we are in. It was just one among many unflinching observations he made during this conversation about American journalism and how Americans learn about the news (and these are two different things).
On the disconnect between news consumers and news producers as well as the role of news makers, he said, “The government is run by people on both sides, on all sides, who think that the world consists of everyone tuning into Fox News and CNN and MSNBC when in actual America, almost no one, statistically, is doing any of that.”
The implications for politics and the democracy are profound.
Edwin and Richard dive into the important differences between opinion journalism and news reporting, and the danger of blurring the line between them, for example by the new leadership at CBS. They talked about the recent changes to press access at the Pentagon, and their shared hope that journalists will at all costs avoid signing any agreement with the government about what they will and will not report.
Watch til the end! And make sure to subscribe to Edwin’s Substack and catch his show, It’s the Democracy, Stupid, every Friday at 1 p.m. ET!
The Worst Takes from a Bad Week
The simplest response to Charlie Kirk’s murder is also the most humane and the best: It was a grotesque act of political violence. Political violence is bad. It is an unspeakable loss for the people directly affected. And it is bad for all of us, encouraging more violence, a sense of collective fear, and often triggering attacks on civil liberties.
