… The Russia story has begun to follow a familiar cycle: A major development or revelation is made public, followed by a flurry of follow-up stories that add new details. Democrats express outrage; a handful of Republicans express concerns. Perhaps a congressional hearing is held. And then the story fades into the background without anything fundamental changing, at least immediately. …
Part of the issue is the sheer volume of news: The constant stream of personnel issues, policy battles and presidential tweets makes it hard for any one story to dominate the headlines for long. But social science research also offers some hints as to why the system may be so slow to change. Regardless of what’s revealed about a president or an election, there’s no automatic process for evaluating accusations or holding powerful people accountable. Change only comes when someone has the political incentives to make it happen — and there aren’t many such incentives built into our system. CONT.
Julia Azari (Marquette U.), FiveThirtyEight