Without a Shared Reality Can We Have a Shared Society?

Diana Hignutt said:

Sorry, I don't have a link for this {...}

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But insiders told The Daily Beast that the decision was likely politically motivated as the network, owned by the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, moves from news coverage toward more right-wing opinion segments.
"There is a concerted effort to get rid of real journalists," one former staffer told the publication. "They laid capable people off who were actual journalists and not blind followers."

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"Lindell is being dropped right and left by legitimate retailers, not because he's friends with Trump, not because he's some victim, because he has a big mouth that has been spewing lies," Alleri said in an email to Insider. "No brand wants to associate with a dumpster fire like that. Advancing a false narrative of a stolen election has consequences."
These consequences could have a sizable impact on My Pillows business. Neil Saunders, managing director of analytics firm GlobalData, said sales through retail partnerships have become a "much more significant element of MyPillow's business.

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In between, President Trump – who served half as long as President Obama – hired more than four times as many lobbyists to serve in his administration. Yet Trump’s low standards didn’t remain newsworthy. Like Obama’s high standards, they were soon taken for granted by the press.

Now the tables have turned once again. The Biden Administration has unveiled the strictest ethics pledge in history, building on President Obama’s lobbying bans by covering not just registered lobbying but also the so-called “shadow lobbying” that long served as an ethics loophole. It’s another big step forward. But it’s also a reminder that Democrats and Republicans are on two entirely different trajectories. If past is prologue, Biden will face more criticism if he fails to perfectly implement his high standards than Trump faced for having practically no standards at all. And rather than feel any political or moral obligation to follow Biden’s example, the next Republican administration will pick up right where the last president of their party left off.

In other words, Democrats and Republicans are playing by different set of rules. And not just when it comes to ethics pledges and lobbying bans. We now know that many of the principles we once imagined were pillars of our democratic society – a respect for truth; a belief in the importance of a free press; the rejection of nepotism; a commitment to honor the results of elections not just in victory but in defeat – are propped up almost entirely by the good faith of politicians. And as we learned over the last four years, in American politics, bad faith is hardly in short supply.

That’s why it’s not enough to usher in an administration that models good behavior. We must ensure that we create high standards that apply to everyone.

That starts with changing political incentives that currently punish leaders who try to act responsibly and reward those who don’t. Some members of the press will surely be tempted to return to their own version of normalcy – one where Obama’s tan suit is a scandal, Joe Biden’s Peloton is a political liability, and it’s generally assumed that Republicans will behave like arsonists while Democrats behave like adults. Yes, the press should hold the Biden Administration accountable. But it would do the American public a disservice to pretend the last four years didn’t happen, or to take it for granted that most Republican politicians will behave like arsonists and most Democratic politicians will try to behave like adults.

Nor is it just the press – and other, similarly nonpartisan institutions – who should do more to prevent the emergence of double standards. Democrats currently control both houses of Congress. They should use that control to codify norms into laws. In past Congresses, for example, Senator Elizabeth Warren has put forward a bill that contains and expands on the provisions in the Obama and Biden ethics pledges. Similar bills could make it harder to oppose the certification of a fair and free election, use the justice department as a political weapon, or rely on corrupt dark money to finance campaigns. Most important, legislation can accomplish what relying on politicians’ good faith cannot – constraining the behavior not only of Democrats, but of Republicans as well.

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lizmonster said:

Even in that article, the attempted violent overthrow of democracy is elided.

It hasn't even been three weeks.

"Let's get back to normal" is going to destroy us.

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