"Not the odds, but the stakes."
That's my shortand for the organizing principle we most need from journalists covering the 2024 election. Not who has what chances of winning, but the consequences for our democracy. Not the odds, but the stakes.
Today the New York Times published an example of stakes reporting:
"Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government...."
@jayrosen_nyu I thought of your shorthand when I saw this piece!
@jayrosen_nyu 
THANK YOU!
@jayrosen_nyu unfortunately, voters/readers are least bothered about what is at stake. What can journalists/media do if their survival is at stake?.They go for clickbait journalism. Most of us have been dumbed down by our own pet peeves we have stopped looking at big picture.
Yes! Political journalism is basically sports handicapping now. There’s no substance.
I appreciate how the image the pops up (once I click on the post) with the link shows that it is a #GiftArticle
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/us/politics/trump-plans-2025.html?unlocked_article_code=xIs5r1zxAGDN77xg08Q6JavrMvRWiHM1qkcSOpZuSM1w3HhnuTEvnoDYE8wxn8-T7BDriP-s9Gg0ju8GI4YLZbUZiMPR7q-Lv4m3WQcUnACBLKks9mdNNoYvIqVyaoBle2ia-SVbVu7FOCVqPz6UZqNpq6sMh5ENSeofvlR0Gf54_6vKhTlltjsnziTYJr1VSxV7HEYWidqMbZGbe9q7hRdIuxrTwv0dGVo1JcTwioLTq8koLvh5XayNTbD6UX_sJF1DIrE6MsB1Jp_H-r4ZtAqL-0hwruzhprU_9aLnsdEUgIw-T1tWEARDQY2VvJLc6ZjCoPA2WncaHE_rMnk&smid=url-share
I wish more news orgs would do this.
It would be nice if more people posting a #GiftLink would also use #hashtags to indicate they're providing a #GiftArticle. That way Mastodon users could search for articles they can read w/out a subscription.
(I pay for several newspapers and recommend subscribing if you can afford it.)
@ZhiZhu @jayrosen_nyu i use the expression 'no paywall' - hashtaging giftarticle seems an easily doable idea
I'll also use the #Hastag #NoPaywall on articles from #News sites that do not have a paywall (when I remember (I don't always remember)).
The search function on Mastodon is still limited to hash-tagged words (at least on my server and on most others as far as I can tell), so I try to use useful hashtags as much as possible. Otherwise, people can't find your posts.
@ZhiZhu i usevplenty of other hashtags that fit most of the stories i post - Ukraine, Russia, Wagner etc
It´s what you call a dictatorship...
@jayrosen_nyu That's truly brilliant. Thank you for reframing the situation in my mental model with a new fine and important distinction.
@jayrosen_nyu republicanism… the “less government control” party… 
It is really stupid for NYT to be saying this now, when it was obvious that this was the plan on Jan 6. And in November 2020.
@jayrosen_nyu If y’all recall American history, we had a “unitary executive” once. His name was George III. The American people didn’t take well to being under his “authority”.
@jayrosen_nyu הפשיזם לא רק כאן
גם בארה"ב איום הפשיזם חד מאוד
This would have been a great way to describe the risk of dying of COVID in the early pandemic. The odds may or may not be high, but the stakes are death or lifelong disease.
@jayrosen_nyu that headline though 
@jayrosen_nyu An end to horse race journalism, in other words.
Here is what I have said about that. Who's ahead has its place. But it should not be the organizing principle for covering the 2024 election. We need something much better.
@jayrosen_nyu Even though I agree with you, the article still paints a much too light picture.
I guess this is the result of being nuanced in reporting. Whereas at this stage extremism in politics should be described in less convoluted language.
@jayrosen_nyu Wannabe Dictators wanna dictate!
@jayrosen_nyu I love that as a shorthand!
totally agree, Jay!! carry on
@jayrosen_nyu What’s with the overly flattering photographs though, as if provided by his campaign’s advertising agency? Ridiculous
Not sure.
The headline speaks to the stakes but in the most banal way possible. Easy to confuse with traditional debates over power of the executive.
“Expanding power” is in no way sufficient to describe what he intends.
@jayrosen_nyu
Rome is burning while Nero is eating a Big Mac
@jayrosen_nyu But Jay I wonder what they are doing to split the Biden vote. Bannon getting RFK Jr. to run, NO Labels candidate(Manchin was here in NH with them yesterday), Biden won’t be on NH ballot because he chose SC to be his first primary, but NH will go first anyway without him( because it’s law here). There is lots of mayhem going on to take votes from Biden.
@jayrosen_nyu
I like what you've said here, "the organizing principle we most need from journalists covering the 2024 election. Not who has what chances of winning, but the consequences for our democracy. Not the odds, but the stakes."
But, I don't think that it is just up to professional journalists and pundits. I think social media posters need to stop trying to predict winners and losers too. The same goes for #GlobalWarming
We have to focus on what can be done to avoid the worst outcomes
I wish the headline hadn't normalized, for want of a better word, Trump's plans as normal U.S. politics. Trump is planning to try to turn the presidency into a dictatorship. The "strategy" is authoritarianism. The headline soft-soaps it more than the story, but the story doesn't frankly and truthfully call it what it is.
I agree with this... "The headline soft-soaps it more than the story, but the story doesn't frankly and truthfully call it what it is."
One factor might be this: Charlie Savage has been covering the expansion of executive power for a long time. One of his themes is that this is a long term trend and presidents of both parties contribute to it. The act of allowing for this fact might have contributed to the underplaying you and others noticed.
Not an explanation, just a factor.
@jayrosen_nyu please read article in NYT of Trump/GOP /Heritage F abt consolidating power in #President & hiring sycophants 2 listen 2 him & does what he wants: his generals, his Supreme Court, his Justice Department, his military only answering to him..THIS IS DANGEROUS. THIS IS A DICTATORSHIP. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN! Vote for Joe Biden . DO NOT SPLIT YOUR VOTE FOR THIRD PARTY. DONT GIVE FASCIST TRUMP OR GOP POWER. IF U R IN NH &BIDEN IS NOT ON BALLOT BECAUSE OF SC…WRITE HIM IN.
@jayrosen_nyu "Stake" is originally a gambling term, as in the following passage from Thoreau's On the Duty of #civildisobedience
"All #voting is a sort of gaming, like chequers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting *for the right* is *doing* nothing for it."
Politicians are not concerned about their constituents, but look to corporate "stakeholders" to fund their campaigns, as mass media cover elections as sports, reporting on the odds for those ready to stake the future of the planet on the outcome of elections.