The results of our May 2017 survey (covering American political leaders from January-May 2017) indicate a great deal of pessimism about American democracy. In brief, we polled 68 democracy experts on threats to American democracy, the significance of recent events, and the likelihood of democratic breakdown in the U.S. … […] Read more »
Hillary Clinton’s ’email’ problem was bigger than anyone realized
Hillary Clinton’s ongoing struggle to deal with the revelation that she used a private email server during her time as secretary of state dominated the conversation about her presidential candidacy, and research suggests it might have doomed her campaign, according to a new study by a consortium of pollsters released […] Read more »
News Coverage of Donald Trump’s First 100 Days
A new report from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy analyzes news coverage of President Trump’s first 100 days in office. … “The press is your enemy,” said the president. “Enemies. Understand that? . . . Because they’re trying to stick the knife right in […] Read more »
How Roger Ailes Polarized TV News
Fox News founder Roger Ailes, who died Thursday at the age of 77, was one of the most (if not the most) controversial and influential news executives in American history. Ailes changed the way people watch news in this country, polarizing the market. Before Ailes helped launch Fox News in […] Read more »
Trump Will Go When the Conservative Media Say It’s Time to Go (Probably Never)
Donald Trump’s presidency is barely four months old, but the events of the past week or so have seemed so explosively damaging to his position in the eyes of many observers that I spent part of my Tuesday morning on the phone with an Ottawa radio show explaining to Canadian […] Read more »
Democratic Norms Are Under Attack, and Not Just by Trump
Shortly after last year’s election, Andrew Reynolds made a startling assertion. The University of North Carolina political scientist, who had helped devise a formula for measuring the vitality of democracies, wrote a newspaper column claiming his state’s restrictions on voting and its unwillingness to follow established rules “means our state […] Read more »