30 Comments

Hero: pro-democracy writer Mark Jacob

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Aw.

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Agree. Once my Washington Post subscription lapses in two weeks, I look forward to redirecting met money to independent journalists.

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Ditto, Anastasia. For me it's 1 week.

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Timothy Snyder of Yale has been a hero over the past 8 years in support of democracy in the US and independence in Ukraine.

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I'm reading his ON FREEDOM right now. Could not possibly be more timely.

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After the last election I was buying copies of On Tyranny and handing it out to people. Unfortunately, the owners of the Washington Post and L.A Times did not realize that one of the rules was " not to obey in advance."

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It is really, really hard to get many smart people to believe that what they read might apply to them.

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I agree with everything you said, except I would add Mark Jacob to your list. Thank you for all that you have done.

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I'm honored that you say so.

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I would certainly include Brian Taylor Cohen as a prominent pro-democracy commentator. He is highly intelligent and possessed of powerful eloquence.

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Hear Hear.👏👍

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Thank you Mark for your heroic efforts to keep us informed. I appreciate the list of heros, making it easier for me to know who I can trust to deliver the truth.

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Its literally an election of superheroes vs supervillains.

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Thank you. At the close of this election cycle, we need a succinct listing of those Americans of Democracy and those willing to destroy our country whether actively or by their silence. I would add Mark Jacobs to your list of Heroes.

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Song girl Kim is right, Mark. You’re obviously too humble and self-effacing to put yourself on that list. Hero is right. If things don’t go well next week, you’ll be able to hold your head up high and know that you did all you could.

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Someone already commented Brian Tyler Cohen as a Hero addition, & several have said Mark Jacob (of course, he wouldn't toot his own horn).

I would add to the Heroes column:

The Lincoln Project;

The Seneca Project;

Simon Rosenberg;

Alvin Bragg;

Letitia James;

Fanni Willis;

Jack Smith (The Shadow);

Ken Burns;

Mark Hamill (who has generously lent his time & voice to every pro-democracy group that's asked him, not to mention his outspokeness on X);

...to name but a few.

Additional Villains:

Aileen Cannon;

Ron DeSantis;

From Texas alone (my home state): Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Dan Patrick, Ted Cruz;

...to name but a slew...

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"The Times frequently focuses on the horse race, not the stakes." The word you want is "usually" not "frequently." It's all horse race, horse race, horse race. And I will never get past the fact (thank you for doing the research, Columbia Journalism Review!) that in 2016 they ran more front page stories about Hillary's emails in the 6 days before the election than about ALL policy issues combined in the previous 69. If that isn't democracy-destroying journalistic malpractice I don't know what is.

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I didn't know that about "her emails," Anastasia, thx. They certainly ran enough about Joe Biden's fitness after the debate last June -- and nowhere near enough about Trump's fitness and the danger he and his gang pose to the USA.

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Heroes: everyone on the Bulwark.

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Mark,

I have never worked for a newspaper or considered myself to be a journalist, but it has always seemed to me that the newspaper had sections, front page news, state and local news, sports, entertainment, and an editorial/opinion page. Those sections, at least I thought they did, divided the information into "factual news", general information and opinions by both the editors and the public through letters to the editor.

Now it seems that is certainly no longer true (if it ever really was). Unfortunate.

So now my news comes from online newsletters from writers that I think I can trust to give honest news and opinions and are clear about which one is which. I am spending about the same dollars as with the major news media, which I don't have any trust in now.

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Great list! I'm an election worker in my town, so I absolutely loved the lead shout-out.

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Thank you for stepping up, Mark, when your voice, in the service of truth over lies, has been needed more than ever.

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You, Margaret Sullivan, and pitifully few others in the journalism world should be on that list. We used to consider Jeff Bezos a hero when he bought The Washington Post. Now he’s a goat. And I don’t mean “greatest of all time”.

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Exactly, Jim. A goat, not a GOAT.

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Absolutely perfect analysis of heroes and villain in these times. Thank you!

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