It's time for journalists to speak out about our process, our ethics and our discipline, which has been maligned constantly by Trump over the past five years. As his supporters echoed his chants of "lock them up" at his political rallies, facing the press corps, other demagogues around the world were taking notice.
In those places, journalists can be jailed or worse for doing our jobs. So far not here but who knows if Trump is re-elected.
Trump's code word "fake news" means real news that he doesn't like. There's one hell of a lot of news I don't like, and I'm a veteran of the news business, but I'd never call it fake. Then again, I am not a demagogue.
As any journalist will tell you, our job is *not* to get you to like the news, it's to dig out the news for you, whether you or we like it or not.
The way we work is meant to maximize the chance we will be delivering accurate news to you -- first and foremost we work to get things right. We hate to make mistakes and we don't make many.
But the early evidence in many of the most explosive stories we publish often comes from people too scared to speak on the record about what they know. Why? They could face reprisals, lose their job, their reputation, face violence, even death.
In response, what journalists do is take that kernel of confidential information and hunt for supporting (or opposing) evidence to put together the story. Once we have one piece of critical data, there are multiple options for fleshing it out.
First, we check that allegation out with other sources, hopefully people in a position to know who have been reliably accurate in the past.
Second, we seek documents that help us get the story straight. Every organization produces tons of documents and we specialize in getting our hands on them.
Finally, if the allegation focuses on a specific person or groups of people, our ethical standards require us to confront those subjects and give them the chance to respond.
We then include their response, often a denial, in our report. On occasion, their response effectively challenges the hypothesis we had been developing, so we adjust the story accordingly.
Sometimes a story that started out looking like it would be negative about somebody turns into a positive report instead. Other times, there is no story there at all, and we turn to other matters.
It strains credulity to see how any rational person could call this process "fake." Having worked inside numerous news companies, I never saw a case where something we couldn't prove was published anyway.
Journalists just don't do that.
But despite our best efforts, we have obviously not succeeded in gaining the trust of the many who buy Trump's conspiracy theories and his rejection of any facts that put his worldview in question.
We continue to do our job. He continues to issue his threats. Never in the history of the republic has the safety of the press been at greater risk.
***
Here is the overnight news. Warning: There is nothing fake about these stories.
* End Minority Rule (Opinion) -- Either we become a truly multiracial democracy or we cease to be a democracy at all. (NYT)
* The New Hampshire Union Leader, a conservative-leaning newspaper, has endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden for president, despite its century-long history of backing Republicans. In backing Biden, the newspaper endorsed its first Democratic candidate in over 100 years. (CNN)
* How Trump abandoned his vow to ‘drain the swamp’-- The president has largely failed to fulfill the pledges he made in 2016 to curtail the influence of lobbyists and special interests in Washington. (WashPo)
* Hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods imposed by the Trump administration didn’t achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data shows. (WSJ)
* Indigenous Colombians, Facing New Wave of Brutality, Demand Government Action -- “If we don’t stand before the world and say, ‘This is happening,’ we will be exterminated,” a protest leader said. After a long civil war, a new type of violence is sweeping Indigenous communities. (NYT)
* Covid: Spain imposes national night-time curfew to curb infections (BBC)
* At least five people in VP Mike Pence's orbit, including chief of staff Marc Short, have tested positive for coronavirus (CNN)
* Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden’s past business ties with Ukraine or Russia, marking out his disagreement with one of Donald Trump’s attack lines in the U.S. presidential election. (Reuters)
* The Worst Virus Outbreaks in the U.S. Are Now in Rural Areas -- Rural counties of fewer than 10,000 people are seeing more coronavirus cases than at any other time during the pandemic. (NYT)
* Psychiatrists know what’s wrong with my uncle. Let them tell voters. -- Mary L. Trump (WashPo)
* Pope Francis appoints America's first Black cardinal, Wilton Gregory. (CNN)
* An all-Black group is arming itself and demanding change. They are the NFAC (CNN)
* California faces highest fire risk of 2020 with 70-plus mph winds, record dry conditions (WashPo)
***
Walked out of shape
So tired of revealing
The moves that I make
But is this real?
And I know, yes, I know
But is this real?
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