Live in the Question

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart...live in the question.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

***

(Note: This is a rewrite of a little essay from the early days of the pandemic in April 2020. It again feels relevant now. The postscript is from today.)

There is so much we cannot control in these times that the only sensible choice we have is to continue (or reinstate) the small daily rituals that bring us comfort. One of these for me is drinking coffee. On certain days, I grind whole beans, filtering the grounds, and drinking the coffee black.

As I do so, I remember passing the piles of coffee beans on the side of the road in Central America and Southeast Asia. At the time I traveled there, I was gathering follow-on research from Circle of Poison, the book I wrote with Mark Schapiro.

Part of that research indicated an ugly fact: The pesticides we were researching could work their way systemically inside the coffee plant and end up as deposits in the beans -- the two flat sides of each pair nestled like a peanut inside the purplish-reddish shell.

No reputable scientist we interviewed believed the tiny residues that ended up in our cups, after shelling, grinding, filtering and boiling, represented a significant health threat to human beings.

So, almost counter-intuitively, I found myself arguing in media interviews that there was no danger from drinking coffee. In fact, it had never been my intention to focus on American consumer safety. My motivation was to highlight the dangers to Third World farmworkers who sprayed those pesticides on the coffee plantations.

As a former Peace Corps Volunteer, and a journalistic world traveler, I'd seen many examples of these dangers, including from overhead crop dusters. On several occasions I was coated by clouds of pesticides like paraquat and malathion while doing my research; in fact I was hit by malathion so often I knew its smell.

But the unwanted chemical showers I received was nothing of consequence when stacked against the daily experience of farmworkers and their children. I was a visitor who could choose to be there and get sprayed or not.

They did not have that choice.

Over the years, there has been some progress around the world in curtailing the use of dangerous pesticides, but the syndrome Schapiro and I wrote about remains.

So it goes. Now I am resuming my coffee ritual, in the midst of this pandemic. As I contemplate my life and compose my memoir, the coffee tastes good but the memories are bittersweet.

P.S. As of 2025, there are persistent reports of a connection between at least one of the commonly sprayed pesticides I wrote about, paraquat, and Parkinson’s Disease. Last October, I was diagnosed with P.D.

HEADLINES:

• Donald Trump’s Cabinet of Revenge (New Yorker)

• No survivors expected after air ambulance carrying 6 crashes in Philadelphia, aircraft company says (NBC)

• Hamas frees 3 hostages and Israel releases Palestinian prisoners in 4th exchange of ceasefire (AP)

• Trump's Justice Department launches sweeping cuts targeting Jan. 6 prosecutors, FBI agents (Reuters)

• Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China: will they spark a trade war? (Guardian)

• The Dumbest Trade War in History Trump will impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for no good reason. (WSJ)

• Businesses, shoppers brace for higher prices if tariffs on Mexico and Canada imports start Saturday (NPR)

• Washington Crash Renews Concerns About Air Safety Lapses (NYT)

• Trump launched air controller diversity program that he now decries (WP)

• DCA crash puts Trump's appalling unfitness on full display (Public Notice)

• What’s the Point of Trump’s War on D.E.I.? (New Yorker)

• Elon Musk Is Trying to Get Control of Key Payment System—at Any Cost (TNR)

• Senior U.S. official to exit after rift with Musk allies over payment system (WP)

• Trump: Federal Workers Will Be Fired Unless They End Remote Work And Return To Office Soon (Forbes)

• Trump Administration Shocks Senior F.B.I. Ranks by Moving to Replace Them (NYT)

• RFK Jr. kept asking to see the science that vaccines were safe. After he saw it, he dismissed it (AP)

• EPA dismisses science advisers (The Hill)

• Defense Department dumps travel policy for troops seeking abortions (Military Times)

• The Department of Transportation has released a memo including an oddly specific requirement that feels dystopian. [HuffPost

• Immigrant Communities in Hiding: ‘People Think ICE Is Everywhere’ (NYT)

• Hamas Turns Hostage Releases Into a Humiliating Spectacle for Israel (WSJ)

• A career official tried to undo Trump’s purge at USAID. He was then purged, too. (WP)

• What to know about Trump's freeze on foreign aid (Axios)

• US aid was long a lifeline for Eastern Europe. Trump cuts are sending shockwaves through the region (AP)

• Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Causes Fear of H.I.V. Resurgence in Africa (NYT)

• US foreign aid freeze is upending global aid and the work of contractors (CNN)

• Russia is closing in on a key Ukrainian city. (Reuters)

• This Is No Way to Talk About Children (Atlantic)

• Where L.A.’s Wealthiest Evacuees Are Fleeing After the Fires (Hollywood Reporter)

• A lost dog was returned to his owner after nearly eight years. When the two were reunited thanks to a microchip, it was clear that their bond was still strong. (WP)

• Copyright Office suggests AI copyright debate was settled in 1965 (Ars Technica)

• The new AI trade emerging after DeepSeek shock (Axios)

• How DeepSeek crashed the AI party (Verge)

• ICE Agent Decides He Wants Kids After Seeing Incredible Love And Devotion Of Parents Begging Him Not To Take Their Child (The Onion)

 

The Image Maker

Observing the first two weeks of the Trump administration has been an exhausting and dispiriting experience. His cabinet appointees in virtually every case are people lacking in qualifications beyond their unswerving loyalty to this president. 

Many of them harbor oddly marginal, even extremist ideas, as if Trump considers that in and of itself a virtue. Yet they’re apparently all going to be confirmed by a compliant Republican-controlled Senate. (RFK Jr. is considered a “coin toss.”)

As they make their public appearances, these incoming officials repeat many of the same political platitudes that got Trump elected. They loudly denounce “illegal” immigrants, DEI hires, transgender people and of course the Democrats, asserting they are to blame for just about every problem facing the American people at large. Collectively, they resemble a mob of mindless zombies staggering toward the situation room.

On Thursday, Trump reminded them who’s boss by taking center stage at a press briefing on the tragic airplane crash in Washington, D.C., only to voice his preposterous claim that DEI hiring practices at the FCC played a role in the tragedy. Asked by a reporter what evidence he had that diversity was the cause, Trump replied “I have common sense.”

Above all else, the man has the unique ability to plant politically useful images in his followers’ minds. And he never misses an opportunity to further undermine their trust in the very government institutions he is bent on neutralizing in his drive for absolute power.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, we can almost guarantee that when the NTSB issues its report on the causes of the crash, the diversity hiring initiatives at FCC will not make the list.

It seems far more likely that the military helicopter involved in the collision was conducting its training mission far too close to the commercial air lanes, and there are reports the air traffic control tower was understaffed at the time of the crash. Usually a combination of things must go wrong to precipitate a disaster like this one.

But by the time the NTSB concludes its investigation, the false image created by Trump of “intellectually challenged” air traffic controllers will have been so thoroughly metabolized by the MAGA base that it will have joined the many other bits and pieces of disinformation he uses to frighten them into submission and lock-step fealty.

Then perhaps, school children in places like Oklahoma and Arkansas will be starting off their days not only with mandatory prayers but with that new national anthem: “My Trumpy, ‘Tis of Thee, Sweet God of Liberty, of Thee I Sing.”

HEADLINES:

• Canada and Mexico face 25% tariffs on Saturday, Trump says (BBC)

• Airport control tower was understaffed before collision. (WP)

• Donald Trump Is Just Watching This Crisis Unfold (Atlantic)

• Without evidence, Trump blames predecessors, diversity programs for fatal air collision (WP)

• Trump takes aim, without evidence, at diversity policies over midair collision (Reuters)

• Air Traffic Control and the DEI Debate (TNR)

• With Sweeping Executive Orders, Trump Tests Local Control of Schools (NYT)

• Trump signed a broad executive order further targeting trans students, with LGBTQ+ advocates saying the order threatens teachers who openly support their trans students. The order further calls to restore a committee meant to promote "patriotic education" around early American history. [HuffPost]

• Defying Legal Limits, Trump Firings Set Up Tests That Could Expand His Power (NYT)

• Tulsi Gabbard refuses to call Edward Snowden a "traitor" (Axios)

• Tesla’s profits slide over 70 percent in the fourth quarter (Verge)

• Chaotic crowds complicate third Israel-Hamas exchange (Al Jazeera)

• US military deportation flight likely cost more than first class (Reuters)

• US foreign aid freeze is upending global aid and the work of contractors (CNN)

• Denmark Orders Ships for Greenland After Trump Demands (Bloomberg)

• Trump’s tariffs loom and even his supporters in Texas are nervous (Texas Tribune)

• Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley (Guardian)

• Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship is an attempt to undo the Civil War (MSNBC)

• The Trump executive orders and actions that are having immediate impacts (WP)

• RFK Jr. stumbles over basics of Medicare, Medicaid during Senate confirmation hearings (CNBC)

• USDA inspector general escorted out of her office after defying White House (Reuters)

• The civil service was once politicized. Then a president was assassinated. (WP)

• Trump threatens to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters (SFC)

• Inside Amazon's plan to cut managers: More direct reports, fewer senior hires, and pay cuts (Business Insider)

• The current news is overwhelming and disorienting. But there are concrete steps we can take right now to fight for what's right — Noah Michelson has updated his mega-list. [HuffPost]

• Marianne Faithfull, singer-songwriter and 1960s pop star, dies at 78 (WP)

• Apple’s Flagging AI Hopes Get Revival From DeepSeek’s Emergence (Bloomberg)

• U.S. Copyright Office says AI generated content can be copyrighted — if a human contributes to or edits it (Venture Beat)

• The Knives Are Coming Out for DeepSeek AI (Gizmodo)

• Why DeepSeek could mark a turning point for Silicon Valley on AI (CNN)

• The real meaning of the DeepSeek drama (The Economist)

• China’s DeepSeek AI prowess is a wake-up call for Big Energy (WP)

• Disturbing New Study Finds American 5th-Graders Only Absorbing Targeted Advertisements At 1st-Grade Level (The Onion)

TODAY’s ARCHIVAL VIDEO:

Marianne Faithfull - Come And Stay With Me (R.I.P.) We’ve lost another 60s icon. 

Dry Run

One of the ways to interpret the Trump administration’s flurry of early moves is that they are part of a dry run, a test of how much chaos each pronouncement causes.

Yesterday’s sudden announcement rescinding the previous day’s freeze on all federal aid payments is a case in point. Since there was a great deal of chaos, the White House backed down — for now.

But in so doing the Trump team gained some valuable intel about how easily they can freak out the population, elected officials and the media. So now they can file those insights away for use at a future time when the specific goal may be to deliberately create chaos as part of a larger strategy involving the centralization of executive power.

Trump is set on gaining absolute power. He doesn't care how much fear and panic his moves cause others, in fact he intends to use that fear and panic in his drive to establish himself as an autocrat. To quote Joe Biden, which I hate to do, this is not hyperbole.

If I am reading Trump’s behavior correctly, and I believe I am, we are witnessing a dry run for how to suspend the constitution during an upcoming, unspecified national “emergency.” Trump is probing for weak spots in the government bureaucracy and testing the various levers at his disposal to see which option will best help accomplish his ultimate objective.

So that’s why it is my opinion that what we’ve seen to date is a dry run.

***

To develop an effective strategy to counteract Trump’s drive for absolute power, pro-democracy Americans need to get out in front of the firestorms he is constantly creating that are diverting public attention from his ultimate goal.

The difficulty of fighting multiple wildfires simultaneously is indeed an appropriate metaphor for what faces Democrats or anyone else in the opposition at the moment. As we saw in L.A. recently, officials could not make much progress toward containment until they could establish burn lines at the perimeters of the multiple fires and pull together huge amounts of resources from all over the place to finish the job.

What complicates this metaphor when we apply it to Trump is that he is the one setting the fires.

HEADLINES:

• ‘No survivors' after plane, helicopter crash into Potomac River (NBC)

• Hamas frees 8 more hostages but Israel puts prisoner release on hold after a chaotic handover (AP)

• White House rescinds federal aid freeze (CNN)

• While a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's move to freeze all federal grants, loans and financial assistance, this is just opening salvo in what could be a long court battle over presidential power. [HuffPost]

• Trump’s federal spending freeze is straight out of Project 2025 (Politico)

• Fork in the Road (OPM)

• What to know about the ‘deferred resignation’ offer (WP)

• Trump and Musk’s plan for a massive purge of the federal workforce, explained (Vox)

• Trump offers federal workers buyout, promises eight months severance pay (Al Jazeera)

• Trump’s “Buyout” Offer for Federal Workers Is Already Backfiring (TNR)

• Trump’s ‘Flood the Zone’ Strategy Leaves Opponents Gasping in Outrage (NYT)

• Trump is playing all his cards all at once (WP)

• Trump's sweeping action, which has already spread panic and confusion, seemed to have finally jolted Democrats awake in a way they haven’t been in months. “This is a 5 alarm f-ing fire,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said. [HuffPost]

• Trump directing the opening of Guantanamo Bay detention center to hold migrants in US illegally (AP)

• Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose becoming part of the United States, poll shows (Reuters)

• Trump Can’t Bully Latin America Without Consequences (Foreign Policy)

• Trump deported 200 Colombians. None were criminals, Colombian officials say. (WP)

• RFK Jr. grilled on his views on vaccines, abortion in first confirmation hearing (NBC)

• How Trump’s orbit used blunt force to squeeze Hegseth through (Politico)

• Pete Hegseth’s confirmation was a massive mistake (The Hill)

• Hegseth takes actions against Trump foe Mark Milley (WP)

• Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth is pulling retired Gen. Mark Milley’s security detail and revoking his security clearance. The plans include an inspector general inquiry into Milley’s work. [HuffPost]

• Scientists Re-Create the Conditions That Sparked Complex Life (Wired)

• The baby gap: why governments can’t pay their way to higher birth rates (Financial Times)

• The population exodus from antiabortion states is underway and may be picking up steam (LAT)

• Test scores show students still aren’t recovering from the pandemic. (WP)

• Gen Z is more fed up with work than ever (Business Insider)

• How wildlife survives after wildfires (BBC)

• Scientists find life-friendly molecules in NASA’s asteroid samples (WP)

• Nvidia is in danger of losing its monopoly-like margins (Economist)

• Chinese AI DeepSeek a 'Wake-Up Call' for U.S. Tech Firms, Donald Trump Says, After Nvidia’s World-Record $600 Billion Loss (IGN)

• OpenAI says Chinese rivals using its work for their AI apps (BBC)

• Why DeepSeek Could Change What Silicon Valley Believes About A.I. (NYT)

• Alibaba releases an artificial intelligence model it says surpasses DeepSeek (Reuters)

• Report: Everything Slightly Worse Than Yesterday (The Onion)

Coming Into Focus

So Project 2025 is finally having its moment. The Trump administration’s all-out assault on federal agencies is straight out of its playbook.

But let’s be clear about Project 2025. It is a wonky conservative dreamscape but it is not a blueprint for transforming a democracy into an autocracy. However, with a tyrant in the White House, that apparently is what it is being used to help facilitate..

Conservative intellectuals have been dreaming up scenarios for dismantling what is now known as the “deep state” for decades. When I lived and worked in Washington, D.C., in 1999-2001, they were working on it then. But it goes back still further, to the 1970s, when a young Congressman Newt Gingrich first burst on the scene. So for all intents and purposes, it should be called Project 1978.

As for Donald Trump, he is neither a conservative nor an intellectual. When he said he didn’t read Project 2025, I’m quite sure it was a rare case of him telling the truth. The report’s authors may hope to use Trump’s presidency to advance their policy agendas, but they may also live to regret that, given the damage to our democracy that is likely to result.

I won’t list the numerous Trump initiatives that overlap with Project 2025 here, but you can check out a handy list courtesy of MSNBC. Instead, I want to focus on the big picture of what Trump and his band of subversives are doing.

We are witnessing a systematic consolidation of executive power that will continue until and unless some combination of oppositional forces brings it to a halt. During this ultra-hazardous moment in American history, we are likely to see constitutional crises, political assassinations, martial law and eventually, the emergence of a mass movement opposed to Trump’s drive for absolute power.

The first faint beginnings of that opposition are already being whispered over in America’s kitchens, coffee houses and houses of worship. For example, some Americans are quietly making plans to shelter migrants from the reach of Trump’s deportation raids, in just one example of what could ultimately be a new underground railroad.

Meanwhile, if the Democratic Party is going to stand up to Trump’s plans, it had better get its act together soon. It needs to craft a counter-strategy to regain control of the House in next year’s midterm elections. 

Democrats can start by acknowledging that they were caught off-guard by the speed with which Trump has implemented the first stages of his coup d état. And, while we’re on that subject, the mainstream media is still reporting that Trump is “joking” about a third term.

Donald Trump doesn’t joke.

Journalist Jim Acosta’s final message as a host at CNN was an appeal for viewers to resist America’s slide into autocracy that is now looking inevitable. Acosta closed with this: “Don’t give into the lies, don’t give in to the fear hold on to the truth and to hope.”

***

For an extensive, in-depth study of the rise of right-wing extremism in American politics see “Displacement and Replacement: The Political History of David Duke, Patrick Buchanan, and Racial Resentment.” (JHS) The author is journalist- historian Dylan Weir, who is also my son.

HEADLINES:

• Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans (AP)

• Scoop: Trump offering buyouts to all federal workers (Axios)

• White House pauses federal grant, loan other assistance programs (Reuters)

• Trump freezes federal aid to Americans, triggering fury (AFP)

• Trump administration targets thousands of programs in funding freeze (Politico)

• How Donald Trump and Project 2025 previewed the federal grant freeze (AP)

• ‘Trump Plunged the Country Into Chaos!’ Schumer Rages At Spending Freeze — Calls it ‘Project 2025 By a Different Name’ (Mediaite)

• White House tries to contain fallout from federal spending freeze as confusion spreads (WP)

• Project 2025 Has Already Begun (Slate)

• Project 2025 was the plan all along. Trump is proving it now. (MSNBC)

• Trump’s Third Term: Just A Joke? (HuffPost)

• Oklahoma proposal requires parents to provide immigration status when enrolling students (AP)

• Trump’s perceived enemies brace for retribution with plans, dark humor (WP)

• In Exacting Retribution, Trump Aims at the Future as Well as the Past (NYT)

• Trump revives push to denaturalize US citizens (USA Today)

• RFK Jr. Says He’s Not Anti-Vaccine Ahead of Senate Hearings (Bloomberg)

• Caroline Kennedy calls cousin RFK Jr. a ‘predator’ in letter, warning senators not to confirm him (WP)

• 7 things about RFK Jr. you should know ahead of his Senate hearings (NPR)

• Kansas officials say tuberculosis outbreak is largest on record in US history (Guardian)

• Polls show views souring on Elon Musk as Trump’s wingman (WP)

• Trump signs orders focused on reshaping US military (BBC)

• Trump Signs Order Restricting Gender-Affirming Treatments for Minors (NYT)

• Trump’s plans could devastate California wine. Here’s how some in Napa are ‘preparing for a war’ (SFC)

• Top USAID staff put on leave amid order halting foreign aid (WP)

• 'We're reborn!' Gazans express joy at returning home to north (ABC)

• What is happening in eastern Congo, where rebels claim they captured a key city? (AP)

• Auschwitz survivors warned of the dangers of rising antisemitism, as they marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp by Soviet troops in one of the last such gatherings of those who experienced its horrors. (Reuters)

• Doomsday clock set at 89 seconds to midnight, closest ever to "global catastrophe" (CBS)

• Pulitzers ask court to pause Trump lawsuit until he’s no longer president (WP)

• Jim Acosta announces exit from CNN (The Hill)

• Who is Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek? (Reuters)

• The DeepSeek panic reveals an AI world ready to blow (Guardian)

• DeepSeek shows AI's centre of power could shift away from US (BBC)

• What is DeepSeek, the app challenging OpenAI and Silicon Valley? (WP)

• Nvidia Reels After China’s A.I. Breakthrough (NYT)

• Investors Worried AI Could Leave Shred Of Humanity Intact (The Onion)

 

Rounding Up Deportees

Who are all these dear friends scattered like dry leaves?
The radio said they were just deportees 

(“Deportee,” by Woody Guthrie and Martin Hoffman)

The first week of the Trump administration has brought so many different kinds of actions that it is easy to feel overwhelmed, but if we examine them individually, the overall patterns become clearer.

The most dramatic events so far are the so-called mass deportation raids occurring in multiple cities across the land. These are made-for-TV events involving teams of federal agents in full regalia swooping in to seize people who do not offer resistance. 

Initial reports indicate half of those being deported have no criminal record.

Friendly media are invited along on these raids — in Chicago, Dr. Phil was embedded with one team, playing the roles of jury, judge and executioner — “Lock him up,” he instructed the agents on his team.

These splashy arrests are predicated on Trump’s repeated claim that undocumented immigrants are responsible for a violent crime wave in U.S. cities. So let’s look at the facts.

First, violent crime is falling in the U.S., not rising.

According to the best estimates I can find, around 8 percent of Americans (including the President) are convicted felons, while that rate among undocumented immigrants is under 3 percent. A comprehensive study by the National Institute of Justice found that in Texas, from 2012-2018, undocumented immigrants were arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.[1]

Translating these numbers into plain English, American citizens are roughly three times more likely than undocumented immigrants to commit a felony, so if the goal was actually to combat crime, Trump, Dr. Phil and the rest of their reality TV show cast would be better advised to start rounding up their friends and neighbors.

Of course, then they would then have to face up to the embarrassing, unprecedented fact that the guy occupying the White House has 34 felony counts on his own rap sheet.

Meanwhile, over at the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, probably the least qualified and the drunkest Secretary of Defense in history, made his presence known by declaring one of his top priorities will be eliminating any transgender people who may serving in our country’s armed forces.

The best estimate is this involves about 15,000 individuals out of over 2 million military personnel, so he’s talking about targeting around three-quarters of one percent of the workforce, including some highly-trained specialists.

Is this supposed to make America safer? Maybe we can ask Hegseth the next time he sobers up. 

Two things about this Trump crowd are clear — they are terrible at math, and they have an utter lack of compassion for people different than themselves. 

HEADLINES: 

• ICE has arrived, along with Dr. Phil (Politico) 

• Federal agents in immigration operations told to be camera-ready as thousands arrested (CNN)

• White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion (WP)

• DOJ fires officials who investigated Trump. (NPR)

• How Trump coerced Colombia to accept deportees by threatening US tariff war (Al Jazeera)

• Arabica Coffee Prices Hit Record on U.S., Colombia Tariff Spat (WSJ)

• Gaza residents stream home to the north after hostage breakthrough (Reuters)

• Trump said he'd like to see Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip — potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area. [AP]

• Trump to sign order eliminating DEI from military (BBC)

• Trump to take aim at DEI, COVID expulsions in military, Hegseth says (Reuters)

• Trump Aides Want to Hit Mexico, Canada With Tariffs Before Talks (WSJ)

• What would happen if the US military went after cartels on Mexican soil? (Guardian)

• Free speech organizations denounce Education Department’s calling book bans a ‘hoax’ (AP)

• Why RFK Jr. Is Dangerous to Public Health (WSJ)

• Climate catastrophes call for state intervention on insurance (Financial Times)

• Trump Seeks to Assert More Control Over California’s Water (NYT)

• The Global South is growing resentful of climate hypocrisy (WP)

• China hits back at CIA over Covid lab leak accusation (Politico)

• Thousands of Afghans who helped the US lose access to critical resources following Trump directives (CNN)

• Takeaways from AP’s reporting on the thousands disappeared in Colombia, Peru and Paraguay (AP)

• Meditating my way out of Trump depression (Sally Quinn/WP)

• Cozy video games can quell stress and anxiety. (Reuters)

• DeepSeek ‘punctures’ AI leaders’ spending plans, and what analysts are saying (TechCrunch)

• China’s DeepSeek AI app sends U.S. tech stocks reeling (WP)

• Pentagon Warns China Developing Love, The Greatest Weapon Of All (The Onion)

  TODAY’s VIDEO:

• Bob Dylan & Joan Baez | Deportee | Woody Guthrie Cover | 1976

 

(Another) Letter to Young Journalists

“Objectivity? I always have an objective.” — Jessica Mitford

Last week, I met with a group of people at the early stages of their careers in journalism. They are the new group of interns at KQED, Northern California’s large public media company where I used to work.

I always enjoy meeting those aspiring to be journalists, and this group was no exception. They were bright, thoughtful and inquisitive. Talking with them took me back 60 years when I was like them, i.e., just starting out.

Now perhaps more than ever, we need people like them. It’s been a year already since Perry Bacon, Jr. published a piece in the Washington Post, writing that “Journalism may never again make money. So it should focus on mission.”

Bacon cited the most recent round of layoffs in media companies, as of that time, but there have been many more since, including at the Post:

“(I)t’s now clear billionaires aren’t a panacea for the news industry. The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, and other super-wealthy individuals who have purchased news outlets haven’t been as successful making money in journalism as in their other businesses and have cut staff to minimize their losses.”

In Bacon’s view, journalism organizations have to focus on their public service missions, because of their inability to make money. (On this point, I take issue. Legacy media used to make a lot of money, but they have not adapted well to technological changes and the changing news habits of their audiences.)

Regardless of that aside, Bacon is right about focusing on mission. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, if not the right to make a profit in the process.

But in order to exercise their press rights, reporters and editors need to be able to make a living. That is at the heart of the crisis in journalism — it is a very difficult way to do that — and has been since the dawn of the web in the 1990s.

My own career is a cautionary tale. I had over 25 different employers in 55 years before retiring, despite spending 12 years at one place — the Center for Investigative Reporting.

I often held two or three jobs at the same time; it was always a terrific struggle to support my family and raise the kids. So if I were just starting out, would I do it all over the same way again now?

You betcha! Journalism is for people who want to uncover the facts, hold power accountable, and (hopefully) affect the course of events — even in small ways. Money is nice, but Raising Hell is better

.HEADLINES:

• Trump backs off trade threats after Colombia agrees to deportation flights (WP)

• Colombia backs down in row with Trump (AP)

• Trump officials issue quotas to ICE officers to ramp up arrests (WP)

• Elon Musk and the Decline of Western Civilization (Persuasion)

• Among the Insurrectionists (New Yorker)

• Trump’s first-week strategy: ‘Flood the zone.’ Repeat. (WP)

• It’s been a week. Here’s how Trump’s actions so far could impact your money in California (SFC)

• Hegseth’s Views May Clash With Reality at the Pentagon (NYT)

• Israel’s Ceasefire Deals Face Test With Impasse on Gaza Refugees (Bloomberg)

• Trump wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza. Here’s why the idea is rejected (AP)

• Israel blocks thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza (Reuters)

• Rains arrive in fire-devastated California. Now concerns turn to mudslides. (USA Today)

• Trump Stocks E.P.A. With Oil, Gas and Chemical Lobbyists (NYT)

• Trump says he believes US will 'get Greenland' (BBC)

• Graham says ‘a good chance’ Supreme Court sides with Trump on birthright citizenship (The Hill)

• Resistance isn’t futile, as Seattle reminds the nation once again (Seattle Times)

• The world is moving on to trade without the US (Financial Times)

• How the U.S. Gamed the Law of the Sea (Atlantic)

• What an Insomniac Knows (New Yorker)

• ‘Eternal You’ and the Ethics of Using A.I. to ‘Talk’ to Dead Loved Ones (NYT)

• New Square Feature Allows Customers To Tip With Bible Quote (The Onion)

What If?

'What' and 'if' are two words as non-threatening as words can be, but put them together side by side and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life. What if? What if? What if? -- (Letters to Juliet)

__________________

I'm not sure that there are many things more intoxicating to a journalist than speculation. By training and obligation, we work within the world of what can be proven -- the facts -- about any given situation, so "wishful thinking" or any such speculative endeavor is strictly out of bounds.

But of course we do speculate, like everyone else, and that is ultimately how we end up getting some of our biggest stories. It starts with a hunch, then a theory, that slowly takes on the shape of reality as the evidence comes in.

There is no better feeling for a reporter than to have such a hunch come true, except for later when you can tell yourself that it actually made a difference in somebody’s life.

Naturally, this sort of experience is not confined to journalists; nothing of value is. Entrepreneurs pitch "what if" scenarios all the time, as in "what if we could disrupt this industry, it would be a multi-billion-dollar market."

After that, go down the list. When scientists speculate, it's called a hypothesis, which like journalists they cannot publish until they've developed enough evidence to convince their peers that it is a plausible explanation for observable phenomena.

Political analysts dream up various scenarios whereby candidates can win close elections based on multiple factors, most of which boil down to voter turnout.

I'm sure you could add dozens of others to this list -- sportscasters, doctors, weather forecasters, grandparents, space explorers. And, of course, what novelists do is almost entirely speculation.

When it comes to me, I rarely indulge in this when considering the past, as in "what if I had taken that job offer, bought that house, stayed in that relationship?" The reason is that it is all pointless now, and in many cases it would only lead to regret.

The future, however, is another matter. And it involves all of us. What if we can’t stop Trump from reaching his goal of autocratic rule? What if we organize a protest movement against Trump as big and boisterous as those in the 1960s? What if in spite of our movement, Trump and the extremists prevail? What if they don’t?

What if we can salvage our democracy? What if we prevail?

(I first published a version of this essay in September 2021.)

HEADLINES:

• I Prosecuted the Capitol Rioters. They Have Never Been More Dangerous. (NYT)

• Donald Trump Throws the Doors to the Patriot Wing Open (New Yorker)

• Trump, at zenith of power, moves quickly to 'take over' Washington (Reuters)

• ‘People Will Be Shocked’: Trump Tests the Boundaries of the Presidency (NYT)

• Trump fires at least 15 independent inspectors general in late-night purge (WP)

• Donald Trump takes a wrecking ball to the federal workforce (Reuters)

• Kristi Noem confirmed as secretary of homeland security (ABC)

• Trump Officials Move to Quickly Expel Migrants Biden Allowed In Temporarily (NYT)

• Britain’s Foreign Secretary Braces for the Second Trump Age (New Yorker)

• Battleground DOJ: How Trump is waging war on the so-called deep state (WP)

• Adam Schiff, Trump’s Favorite Foil, Tries to Insulate California From His Wrath (NYT)

• Hamas remains in charge in Gaza (Reuters)

• C.I.A. Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid’s Origins (NYT)

• Trump plans quick help for LA (Axios)

• Timothée Chalamet Pretty Sure ‘SNL’ Pulled ‘Big Prank’ on Him (Daily Beast)

• How Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Made a Model that Rivals OpenAI (Wired)

• Trump shrugs off Elon Musk’s criticism of AI announcement: ‘He hates one of the people’ (CNN)

• Meta to Increase Spending to $65 Billion This Year in A.I. Push (NYT)

• Biden In Critical Condition After Sticking Tongue In Marine One Chopper Blade (The Onion)