Moving On

In his column today in the New York Times David Brooks draws what I think is a reasonable conclusion:

Democrats might approach this moment with an attitude of humility and honest self-examination. It’s clear that many Democrats made grievous accusations against the president that are not supported by the evidence. It’s clear that people like Beto O’Rourke and John Brennan owe Donald Trump a public apology. If you call someone a traitor and it turns out you lacked the evidence for that charge, then the only decent thing to do is apologize.

I do not believe such apologies will be forthcoming. I don’t believe anyone will back down from their previous positions. That would require a certain degree of grace, something sadly lacking in our national discourse. Democrats will continue to proclaim Trump a traitor, albeit possibly less loudly. Republicans will declare victory and vindication.

Grace would require penitence commensurate with the exaggerated accusations. The major media outlets have devoted more than 2,200 hours to coverage of something that didn’t happen. It would also require grace in victory which would mean a quieter acceptance. I don’t think the parties are capable of either.

Mr. Brooks continues:

The sad fact is that Watergate introduced a poison into the American body politic. Richard Nixon’s downfall was just and important, but it opened up the mouthwatering possibility that you don’t need to do the hard work of persuading people to join your side. Instead, you can destroy your foes all at once through scandal.

Politics since Watergate has been defined by a long string of scandals and pseudo-scandals — Iran-contra, Whitewater, Valerie Plame, Benghazi, Solyndra, swift-boating. Politico last year compiled a list of 46 scandals that were at one time or another deemed “worse than Watergate.”

The nation’s underlying divides are still ideological, but we rarely fight them honestly as philosophical differences. We just accuse the other side of corruption. Politics is no longer a debate; it’s an attempt to destroy lives through accusation.

The political media, especially on TV, now has a template it can apply whenever a scandal looms into view, to hook viewers into the speculative story line. According to the Tyndall Report, the three main broadcast networks made the Russia collusion investigation the second-most-covered news event of 2018, trailing only the Kavanaugh hearings, another scandal.

All the players slip into their assigned roles. Straight reporters are doing good, hard work. But the flow of information is not fast enough to keep up with 24/7 programming, so you get this toxic deluge of raw speculation.

which is something I’ve been saying for decades but I think he’s being far too exculpatory of his peers. It isn’t “the American body politic”. It’s American journalism. A whole generation entered journalism for a chance at real power—taking down a president you despise, becoming a hero, and being portrayed by Robert Redford in the movie adaptation. Now it’s become a bad habit, still being pursued by journalists who are too young to remember Watergate (but who studied it in J-school).

The price is being paid in the form of loss of credibility, attendant viewership, and lost jobs but the rest of us are also paying. What can substitute for not being able to trust what’s being reported?