It’s another election season, and we’re in reruns. Donald Trump, the first convicted-felon former president, is carrying on at rallies as ever, repeating the word “rigged.” Joe Biden, America’s oldest president, is mostly staying home, also as before. The world rages with war; stateside, democracy feels imperiled. “We’re just kind of over it,” Noemi Peña, a twenty-year-old from Tucson, told the Wall Street Journal in March. “We don’t even want to hear about it anymore.” Fair enough: When the report each day is that it’s doomsday, why not change the channel? There are countless purveyors of political “content”—gossip, rant, clip, meme, partisan faux-news report—with whom reporters must compete for possession of “truth.” The scrolling is infinite—overwhelming and mind-numbing and sometimes just boring. News avoiders now just about outnumber close followers; the notion of “political junkies” sounds retro. If apathy was a problem the press could once ignore, it’s harder now that the business of journalism—and perhaps much more—depends on getting people to pay attention.
The Election Issue
We’ve Been Here Before
The Second Insurrection That Wasn’t
My view from inside Twitter—and how I see the threat to election integrity now.
How Politics Broke Content Moderation
First came Elon Musk, then the House of Representatives.
A Respectful Mirror
Editors in purple states must weigh truth-telling against pleasing their audience.
The F-Word
Data shows that cable networks are focused on Trump and fascism—as they never have been before.
Mindless Reply
In the realm of political disinformation, AI-generated deepfakes are not such a big problem. Our susceptibility to gossip is.
Unconfirmable
Fact-checking into oblivion, again.
Fact-checking for this issue was provided by Kris Cheng, Matthew Giles, Noah Hurowitz, Sophie Kemp, and Will Tavlin. Copyediting was done by Mike Laws.