Heroes and villains of the 2024 campaign

Media cowardice is a primary theme of this year’s politics.

I’m usually not a fan of labeling people as heroes or villains. Life is more nuanced than that. But this year’s political campaign has not been a gray area. We are witnessing the struggle of democracy to survive a fascist assault. Here are some people on either side of that struggle.

Heroes: The voters

I was at a polling place last week when an election worker started yelling. There wasn’t a problem, quite the opposite. He shouted: “First-time voter!” And people cheered.

Villains: People who don’t want you to vote

Powerful people who crave authoritarian power want Americans to give up on the system. They want voting to be difficult. They want the choices to be confusing. They think they own the country and everyone else is renting. They’re wrong.

Hero: Marc Elias

The nation’s foremost lawyer for voting rights.

Villains: Media cowards

The owners of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times refused to let their editorial boards endorse Kamala Harris, They “obeyed in advance” out of fear that a would-be tyrant would win and harass their businesses. Utterly shameful.

Heroes: Journalists who quit cowardly publications

At least three editors at the Los Angeles Times and an editor and a columnist at the Washington Post resigned over their employer’s cravenness. After Mariel Garza left her job as head of the Times’ editorial board, she wrote: “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.” 

Villains: NBC executives

They tried to hire coup plotter Ronna McDaniel as a commentator and backed off only after a revolt from their on-air personalities. Not a single exec got fired over this horrible lack of judgment.

Heroes: The very few Republicans with spines

Thanks to Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Olivia Troye, Joe Walsh and the other former Trump supporters who chose country over party.

Villain: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump welcomed an endorsement from RFK Jr., an anti-vaxxer who dumped a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park and set up the scene to look like the cub was hit by a bicycle. RFK Jr. is mentally disturbed. Yet Trump promises to give him a role in shaping the nation’s health policies. The Trump-RFK Jr. alliance is a symptom of national madness.

Hero: ProPublica

This nonprofit investigative outfit is a rare reason for hope about the future of journalism in this country. ProPublica gives us smart, nonpartisan, well-documented reporting on subjects such as immigration and the Supreme Court, two of the most important issues in this year’s election. Consider how much we wouldn’t know about Justice Clarence Thomas’ corruption if there was no ProPublica. 

Villain: Elon Musk

The biggest spreader of disinformation on X is the owner of X.

Hero: Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly

It took him way too long to go on the record about Trump’s fascism, but he finally did. It might make a difference.

Villains: The Murdochs

Brain poisoners. Enemies of American democracy. 

Hero: Daniel Dale

Facts still matter, at least when Dale is on CNN.

Villains: New York Times leadership

The Times frequently focuses on the horse race, not the stakes. It tends to present politics as entertainment, making the nation’s most prominent newspaper seem unserious. Its headlines often go out of their way to avoid making Republicans uncomfortable. Publisher A.G. Sulzberger said early this year that his newsroom couldn’t be concerned about whether it would be on the right side of history. News flash: It’s not.

Heroes: Some New York Times journalists

A frustrating thing about the failure of the Times is that its staff includes some of the nation’s best reporters. For example, Susanne Craig is an expert on Trump’s dodgy finances. And the Times published an important story a year ago headlined “Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans.” The Times isn’t all bad – but it’s not nearly good enough.

Villain: George W. Bush

Inexcusable silence.

Hero: The New Republic

This magazine has been especially sharp in its political analysis, thanks in part to its hiring of the always incisive Greg Sargent, who got out of the Washington Post in the nick of time.

Villain: Nikki Haley

Journalists who considered her a moderate must have forgotten to look at her words and her record. A moderate would have endorsed Harris, not Trump.

Heroes: Pro-democracy commentators

Sharp thinkers and writers have made their voices heard. They include Heather Cox Richardson, Margaret Sullivan, Dan Froomkin, Jay Rosen, Will Bunch, Rex Huppke, Jennifer Rubin, Steven Beschloss, Molly Jong-Fast, Elie Mystal, Aaron Rupar, Judd Legum, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Tara McGowan, Jennifer Schulze, Edwin Eisendrath, Jemele Hill, Oliver Darcy and the folks at Meidas Touch. There are many others, of course. We need bold voices in these challenging times. 

Villains: Right-wing radicals on the Supreme Court

The presidential immunity ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, empowers a would-be dictator to end the American experiment. Thus it raises the stakes even higher for this election. The ruling is right up there with the Dred Scott decision as a stain on the Supreme Court’s history.

Heroes: Some MSNBC journalists

Many of the channel’s on-air personalities – especially Nicolle Wallace, Lawrence O’Donnell and Ali Velshi – are doing an excellent job focusing on the Republican threat to democracy. Unfortunately, the people who most need to hear this message don’t watch MSNBC. And the channel has some clunkers, such as Andrea Mitchell.

Villain: Merrick Garland

I suspect Garland is a nice man. And in quiet times, he might have been a fine attorney general. In this crisis, he is not. The primary goal of an attorney general after an attempted coup by a criminal president should have been to get him to trial on those charges before the next election. Garland didn’t.

Hero: Joe Biden

He should have recognized earlier that his age made him untenable, but he got out of the race in time to give Harris and the pro-democracy movement a decent chance.

Villain: Mike Johnson

He’s the speaker of the House, second in line for the presidency after the vice president. He’s also a Christofascist who tried to overturn the last election and will attack the result of this election if Harris wins. Because of his high position, TV networks eagerly have him on the air to lie to their audience in defense of Trump.

Hero: Kamala Harris

She has run a nearly flawless campaign after coming in from the sidelines when the contest was well underway. 

Villains: Trump/Vance

They are telling us what they want, and that’s a dictatorship. Their alarming comments are not just “letting off steam,” as one Fox propagandist put it. They will steal our freedom if the American people let them. This election may not be our last chance, but it’s our best chance to prevent a national and global disaster.