MAGA Criminal, Convicted Felon, and Saying the Scary Thing A Lot
MAGA Criminal, Convicted Felon, and Saying the Scary Thing A Lot
Top Story: Convicted Felon in the White House? Say That Scary Thing. A lot.
We forget sometimes that journalism is a public service.
And repetition is our superpower.
When democracy-destroyers threaten your communities, it is a good rule of thumb to make that top of mind.
Again. And again. And again.
Busy readers may forget the details. It’s your job to remind them in ways they can understand, relate to, and act on. (That’s the public service part.)
Here’s how:
Tips on Keeping Threats to Democracy Top of Mind At Election Time
Remember what’s normal
Just because MAGA Republicans on your beat have been around for a while, it doesn’t mean their anti-democratic acts are any less threatening. Keep that in mind when you are covering them.
Lead with things that really are scary.
Candidates who threaten violence, threaten to rob people of their rights, threaten to lock their opponents up, or threaten to ignore the results of an election are messaging their disinterest in democracy in ways that a lot of people would find alarming. Make sure you mention these threats every time you mention each of these candidates.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Repetition can be a great way to shape your community’s understanding of candidates hostile to democracy. Those repetitive sentences may not be the most exciting ones to write. But they may be the most important ones you write.
Who? What? When? Where? Democracy?
At a time when people on your beat are openly hostile to democracy, you have 4 Q’s and a D. Once you cover the 4 basics. Make sure to assess the most important one. Is this person a foe of democracy?
Read your audience. Not your college textbooks.
A lot of busy people don’t care about lofty ideas. They do care about clean drinking water in their town, the freedom to decide whether or not to become parents, the right to keep rich outsiders from funding their elections, and the chance for their kids to read classics in school. It's your job to figure out what your readers would actually miss if folks hostile to democracy got more power. And tell them.
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Executive Editor Kyle Spencer
Managing Editor Christen Gall
Our Board of Advisors
Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability
David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations
Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
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