Editor’s letter

How should the news media cover Donald Trump’s pursuit of another term in the White House? “You cover him like any other candidate,” proclaimed CNN’s CEO, Chris Licht, shortly before his hubris got him fired this week. CNN’s new owners had installed Licht to rebrand the network as a nonpartisan alternative to MSNBC and Fox News where “both sides” would get equal treatment. (See Briefing, p.11.) To prove CNN’s neutrality, Licht recently featured Trump on a prime-time town hall. Moderator Kaitlan Collins valiantly challenged Trump’s torrent of lies, but proved no match for Trump’s superpower: utter shamelessness. When confronted with evidence that contradicts his ravings, the Mad King bellows, attacks his questioner, and portrays himself and his fanatical followers as victims of bias and persecution.

The dilemma another Trump run presents to news media is not, of course, unique to CNN. He’s shattered all the spoken and unspoken rules that once governed political discourse. Though he faces prosecution on multiple, serious charges, Trump currently leads Republican polls by nearly 30 points. Sane, traditional conservatives languish in the single digits or sit on the sidelines. Trump’s leading rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis, is running to Trump’s right as an anti-vaxxer, book censor, and culture warrior unafraid to use state power to punish anyone who dares disagree. As president, DeSantis says, he will take full control of the FBI and Justice Department—he calls their independence “a myth”—and vows to “destroy leftism in this country.” What, one must wonder, will this destruction require? Old-school journalists like myself still believe in the value of independent, fair, and nonpartisan coverage of politics. This model presumes that candidates’ assertions should be tested through evidence and reason, and that rejecting election results, seeking to destroy opponents, and criminal conduct should be disqualifying. Not every- William Falk one shares those presumptions anymore. Editor-in-chief