Politics

How Donald Trump, Michael Avenatti, and Twitter hack the press

How Donald Trump, Michael Avenatti, and Twitter hack the press

"Iโ€™m a political journalist. Iโ€™ve been a political journalist for 15 years. I believe in my profession. But right now, Iโ€™m worried weโ€™re failing. Iโ€™m worried weโ€™re making American politics worse, not better. Thatโ€™s not because journalists arenโ€™t doing remarkable, courageous, heroic work. Look at the #MeToo movement, the investigations of Donald Trumpโ€™s finances, the remarkable reporting that journalists do every day in the midst of war zones and Ebola outbreaks and authoritarian regimes.'

'Itโ€™s because everything around us has changed โ€” our business models, the way people read us, the way we compete with each other, the way weโ€™re manipulated โ€” and weโ€™re not keeping up. Instead, weโ€™re getting played by the outrage merchants and con artists and trolls and polarizers who understand this new world better. President Trump is the most successful media hacker out there, but heโ€™s not the only one. Weโ€™re being used to fracture American democracy, and I donโ€™t think we know how to stop it."

Large Majorities Dislike Political Correctness

Large Majorities Dislike Political Correctness

"On social media, the country seems to divide into two neat camps: Call them the woke and the resentful. Team Resentment is mannedโ€”pun very much intendedโ€”by people who are predominantly old and almost exclusively white. Team Woke is young, likely to be female, and predominantly black, brown, or Asian (though white โ€œalliesโ€ do their dutiful part). These teams are roughly equal in number, and they disagree most vehemently, as well as most routinely, about the catchall known as political correctness."