The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.

The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.

Cleveland Plain Dealer teaches The New York Times how to journalism.

  • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
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    8 months ago

    Our nation does seem to be slipping down the same slide that Germany did in the 1930s. Maybe the collapse of government in the hands of a madman is inevitable, given how the media landscape has been corrupted by partisans, as it was in 1930s Germany.

    I hope not.

  • noneya@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    …and this is what it takes for people to turn back to their local news media for accurate, unbiased coverage. Kudos to cleveland.com and any other media organization who decides to print the truth and not some repackaged drivel from the handful of largely-conservative mass media organizations.

    • snooggums@midwest.social
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      8 months ago

      They were too invested in the ‘both sides are just trying to do things differently’ idea and didn’t want to appear to be taking sides. This unfortunately breaks when abused by fascists, and it takes time to drop traditions that don’t work for the current times.

      Plus a lot of the media is owned by conservatives who want to keep their side appearing to be legitimate.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    8 months ago

    I sent a thank-you email to the editor and also pointed out a missing word so the can fix a sentence (I’m just pedantic like that). I hope more newsrooms will follow this example.

    I heard in a podcast interview that whatever GOP org is now adding the following to their interview process: “Who won the 2020 election?” If you don’t say Trump, you don’t get the job. The amount of control that he has over the GOP is still startling.