If U.S. democracy falls, one key enabler will have been the most consequential failure to date of a vital institution doing its job: journalism.
It makes my journalism friends profoundly and understandably uncomfortable to think of themselves as activists. But if they won’t use their platforms to raise the alarm loudly and persistently, beyond spotting some burning brush while ignoring the blazing forest, we—and they—are in deep, deep trouble.
Even if they do, we’ll all still be at risk, but at least the craft I believe in will have tried. And that will be a start.