As Independence Day approaches, more than one in four Americans are so alienated from their government that they believe it may “soon be necessary to take up arms” against it, according to a new poll released Thursday by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics (IOP). That startling finding, which […] Read more »
Journalists Sense Turmoil in Their Industry Amid Continued Passion for Their Work
From the economic upheaval of the digital age to the rise of political polarization and the COVID-19 pandemic, journalism in America has been in a state of turmoil for decades. While U.S. journalists recognize the many challenges facing their industry, they continue to express a high degree of satisfaction and […] Read more »
American Democracy is Under Threat — and Newsrooms Are Mobilizing to Cover It
Think about a “threat to democracy,” and it’s easy to conjure up an image of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — the nation’s very seat of government besieged by rioters convinced that the presidential election was rigged. … While the insurrection was a wake-up call for the nation […] Read more »
January 6 committee is testing whether Americans can still agree on a shared reality
With the powerful case it has assembled against former President Donald Trump, the bipartisan House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection may provide the clearest — and potentially most ominous — measure yet available of how completely red and blue America have separated into divergent information bubbles that […] Read more »
What Ordinary Republicans Think About January 6
… I live in a deep-red part of America. According to the New York Times neighborhood political calculator, only 15 percent of my neighbors are Democrats. That’s one reason why I laugh when Beltway Republicans and Acela-corridor conservatives purport to explain Trump’s appeal to me. They’re “explaining” the actions of […] Read more »
Why is trust in government so low? There’s blame to go around.
Pew Research Center’s latest poll confirms what has been known for a long time: Trust in government is low. Really low. “Just 20% say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time,” the pollsters found, although when asked about […] Read more »