washingtonmonthly--2020-11-27--Why Biden Has It Harder Than FDR and Lincoln

When he takes the presidential oath of office on January 20 , Joseph Robinette Biden , Jr. will join rare company with presidents who first came to office amidst a national crisis : Abraham Lincoln in 1861 , Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 , and Barack Obama in 2009 .
Each was elected during a moment of real national emergency .
Other presidents have been elected during recessions ( Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Warren Harding in 1920 ) or even wars ( likewise , Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1968 ) .
Of course , presidents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wilson and George W. Bush .
But Lincoln , FDR , and Obama inherited a genuine national crisis the moment they lifted their hand from the Bible at their first inaugural following their election .
Of the three , only Biden arrives with modest Congressional support .
The Senate will likely remain under Republican control .
The House Democrats have a slim , diminished majority come January .
FDR had 58 senators on which to rely .
Obama ’ s majority dropped to 59 by his second year .
Biden must face a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , likely , without a Congress under his party ’ s control .
( Even if the Democrats get to 50 in the Senate , that is a shaky edifice . )
While it ’ s true that good news about a possible vaccine takes some of the edge off the crisis , it is not yet through trials , and its distribution to 330 million Americans ( not to mention 7.7 billion global citizens ) is an extraordinary task .
No one expects the age of masks and anxiety or economic displacement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense of what Biden faces , think of the world of 12 years ago .
In 2008 , Obama won amid the Great Recession , with both Capitol chambers in his Democratic column .
The housing and stock market had tumbled along with the backbone of the housing securitization market , Fannie Mae , which lay in government receivership .
Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were gone .
Banks and the auto industry were on life support .
The Dow fell under 7000 within a few weeks of his assuming office .
Obama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a handful of Republicans to pass a stimulus package .
While smaller than what he wanted or Democratic economists insisted was needed , it nevertheless provided a life-saving jolt to the economy .
Obama had Congressional and Fed backing for assorted policy innovations from Cash for Clunkers to bolster auto sales to direct injection of funds into the automakers to mortgage relief for millions .
The new president used the crisis to pass health care reform the following year , barely getting it through the Senate gauntlet when his majority in the chamber @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t be so fortunate as his boss if that ’ s the right word .
At the moment , Congressional leadership can not agree on an aid package to stem the coming wave of business foreclosures , personal bankruptcies , and foreclosed mortgages that will come with this winter ’ s coronavirus spike .
Mitch McConnell is unlikely to help this Democratic president any more than he did the last one .
No presidential crisis has been as deserving of the term existential as the one Lincoln faced in March 1865 when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had left the Union by the time he was sworn in at the half-finished Capitol .
These Southern states had fled the Union out of fear that the first Republican president was an existential threat to their ownership over four million slaves .
As awful as the crisis was for the new president , the departure of so many Democrats from Congress left Lincoln a chorus of “ aye ” Republican votes in Congress .
The House count was 108 Republicans to 44 Democrats , and those who remained were pro-union .
Lincoln @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 1861 , that North and South were “ not enemies , but friends ” were mocked by the South .
The Confederacy was already emerging , primarily led by former members of Congress .
( Fatefully , one Tennessee senator who stayed in town as a Union Democrat was the racist Andrew Johnson , who became Lincoln ’ s vice president in 1865 . )
Just five weeks after Lincoln took the oath , the Civil War began April 12 , when Davis ordered shots fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Army garrison under siege .
The Capitol was open , but dark and diminished , so much so that Clara Barton set up a temporary ward for wounded soldiers on the Senate floor when the first blood was spilled in Baltimore later that Spring .
In the sudden storm , Lincoln could count on Congress .
He had to do much more than assemble a Cabinet .
With approval from the new 37th Congress , Lincoln raised an army , which grew to 225,000 soldiers mobilized by July .
He passed a tax @ @ @ @ @ @ @ larger scale than ever before : $ 1.5 million a day .
Another law gave the government authority to issue paper money .
Lincoln was girding for massive modern warfare .
He never started fights , and thanks to a supportive Congress , he never lost one .
With the war underway , Lincoln was on easy speaking terms with both the radical abolitionists and his party ’ s moderates .
Before the Senate adjourned for the summer of 1861 , it approved a resolution granting Lincoln emergency powers , which he put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a useful war weapon in Baltimore , the nearest city crawling with Southern sympathizers .
In April 1862 , Lincoln and the 37th Congress took a step toward outright emancipation .
The District of Columbia ’ s enslaved were freed , for a price , the only example of government compensation for slaveowners .
The absence of Southern lawmakers was a good thing for Lincoln in ways beyond the war .
The Transcontinental Railroad act , his dream as a railroad lawyer , was passed .
So was the Homesteading act , opening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lincoln put higher education on a firm egalitarian footing by introducing land grant colleges .
A slew of nation-building progressive legislation came from the Civil War president and his amen Congress .
By January 1 , 1863 , Lincoln was leaning toward the radicals in his party .
Signing the Emancipation Proclamation was all his own .
Congress did not have a say , but the legislature did give its consent to allowing Black men to join the Army .
It ’ s little remembered that inauguration day was moved up to January @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the passage of the 20th Amendment .
The long interregnum between casting ballots in November and a late Winter inauguration made some sense before telephones and a revolution in transportation .
By 1933 , it was just destructive dead time , worse than Biden ’ s travail with Trump and , arguably , worse than Lincoln ’ s .
That ’ s because economic catastrophe worsened after FDR ’ s election in the lead up to the inaugural .
In Herbert Hoover ’ s last dismal days , banks all over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ verge of failing .
Could the financial system collapse ?
On Inauguration Day , the new president closed the banks for four days to steady the ship with his leadership .
FDR refused the outgoing president ’ s 11th-hour plea for joint proclamation on closing the banks to distance himself from the hated Hoover .
Fortunately , FDR was not only blessed with “ a first-class temperament , ” but an army of congressional allies in 1932 when he engaged in “ bold , persistent experimentation ” to raise the sunken American economy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there were nearly 200 more Democrats than Republicans in the House and 23 more in the Senate .
( Biden seems to have a margin of four in the House and boasts only at 48 Senators , for now . )
The Emergency Banking Act was first rushed onto the Capitol floors and passed handily .
Public works projects such as bridge building , art murals adorning post offices , writers exploring folklore and history , rural electrification , a civilian conservation corps ( CCC ) : all arose from the imaginative New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the era ’ s grandest feats .
At first , the CCC was probably closest to FDR ’ s heart .
He described himself as a tree-planter in his Hyde Park home along the Hudson River .
In a matter of months , the CCC rounded up employed 275,000 young men across the country .
In 1935 , an even bigger Congressional mandate allowed FDR to remake the New Deal .
The 74th Congress passed , and Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act , his most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. Senate out of 96 seats helped .
So how can Biden deal best with the bad hand he ’ s been dealt ?
He ’ ll use executive authority where he can bypass a recalcitrant Senate , of course .
But Biden will need to be cautious , too , lest his stroke-of-the-pen orders face difficulties in the courts as many of Obama ’ s did , such as DACA and his recess appointments .
He ’ ll try to find some common-ground issues with the GOP—vaccine distribution , the long-delayed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mostly he ’ ll need to put his agencies to work .
A Justice Department with a muscular Antitrust Division and a Federal Trade Commission that scrutinizes mergers and then blocks them could prove a way to broaden his support and repair the economy not only through the dangerous shoals of the pandemic but over the long term .
In some ways , Biden is not unlike Truman in 1946 , who was filling out Roosevelt ’ s fourth term .
Republicans picked up 55 House seats in that first , post-war election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among the winners ) and 12 in the Senate .
He had little chance of getting much passed .
But he did take strong action integrating the military and prosecuting the Cold War , even if his bid for national health insurance died as painfully as Bill and Hillary ’ s .
But America in 1946 had won the war and had half the world ’ s GOP .
Biden will have to make do with much less—a divided , disease-ravaged , recession-plagued nation that even the greatest crisis presidents of the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @

When he takes the presidential oath of office on January 20, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. will join rare company with presidents who first came to office amidst a national crisis: Abraham Lincoln in 1861, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933, and Barack Obama in 2009. Each was elected during a moment of real national emergency. Other presidents have been elected during recessions (Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Warren Harding in 1920) or even wars (likewise, Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1968). Of course, presidents declared war while in office: Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush. But Lincoln, FDR, and Obama inherited a genuine national crisis the moment they lifted their hand from the Bible at their first inaugural following their election.
Of the three, only Biden arrives with modest Congressional support. The Senate will likely remain under Republican control. The House Democrats have a slim, diminished majority come January. FDR had 58 senators on which to rely. Obama’s majority dropped to 59 by his second year. Biden must face a once-in-century global pandemic and its economic fallout, likely, without a Congress under his party’s control. (Even if the Democrats get to 50 in the Senate, that is a shaky edifice.) While it’s true that good news about a possible vaccine takes some of the edge off the crisis, it is not yet through trials, and its distribution to 330 million Americans (not to mention 7.7 billion global citizens) is an extraordinary task. No one expects the age of masks and anxiety or economic displacement to end soon.
To get a sense of what Biden faces, think of the world of 12 years ago. In 2008, Obama won amid the Great Recession, with both Capitol chambers in his Democratic column. The housing and stock market had tumbled along with the backbone of the housing securitization market, Fannie Mae, which lay in government receivership. Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were gone. Banks and the auto industry were on life support. The Dow fell under 7000 within a few weeks of his assuming office.
Obama was able to galvanize Senate Democrats and a handful of Republicans to pass a stimulus package. While smaller than what he wanted or Democratic economists insisted was needed, it nevertheless provided a life-saving jolt to the economy. Obama had Congressional and Fed backing for assorted policy innovations from Cash for Clunkers to bolster auto sales to direct injection of funds into the automakers to mortgage relief for millions. The new president used the crisis to pass health care reform the following year, barely getting it through the Senate gauntlet when his majority in the chamber dropped to 59. Biden won’t be so fortunate as his boss if that’s the right word. At the moment, Congressional leadership cannot agree on an aid package to stem the coming wave of business foreclosures, personal bankruptcies, and foreclosed mortgages that will come with this winter’s coronavirus spike. Mitch McConnell is unlikely to help this Democratic president any more than he did the last one.
No presidential crisis has been as deserving of the term existential as the one Lincoln faced in March 1865 when he took the presidential oath. Seven states had left the Union by the time he was sworn in at the half-finished Capitol. These Southern states had fled the Union out of fear that the first Republican president was an existential threat to their ownership over four million slaves. As awful as the crisis was for the new president, the departure of so many Democrats from Congress left Lincoln a chorus of “aye” Republican votes in Congress. The House count was 108 Republicans to 44 Democrats, and those who remained were pro-union. Lincoln’s inaugural plea on March 4, 1861, that North and South were “not enemies, but friends” were mocked by the South. The Confederacy was already emerging, primarily led by former members of Congress. (Fatefully, one Tennessee senator who stayed in town as a Union Democrat was the racist Andrew Johnson, who became Lincoln’s vice president in 1865.) Just five weeks after Lincoln took the oath, the Civil War began April 12, when Davis ordered shots fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, held by a Union Army garrison under siege. The Capitol was open, but dark and diminished, so much so that Clara Barton set up a temporary ward for wounded soldiers on the Senate floor when the first blood was spilled in Baltimore later that Spring.
In the sudden storm, Lincoln could count on Congress. He had to do much more than assemble a Cabinet. With approval from the new 37th Congress, Lincoln raised an army, which grew to 225,000 soldiers mobilized by July. He passed a tax bill to fund a war on a larger scale than ever before: $1.5 million a day. Another law gave the government authority to issue paper money. Lincoln was girding for massive modern warfare. He never started fights, and thanks to a supportive Congress, he never lost one.
With the war underway, Lincoln was on easy speaking terms with both the radical abolitionists and his party’s moderates. Before the Senate adjourned for the summer of 1861, it approved a resolution granting Lincoln emergency powers, which he put to use in suspending habeas corpus, a useful war weapon in Baltimore, the nearest city crawling with Southern sympathizers.
In April 1862, Lincoln and the 37th Congress took a step toward outright emancipation. The District of Columbia’s enslaved were freed, for a price, the only example of government compensation for slaveowners. The absence of Southern lawmakers was a good thing for Lincoln in ways beyond the war. The Transcontinental Railroad act, his dream as a railroad lawyer, was passed. So was the Homesteading act, opening up the Western prairie to settlers. Lincoln put higher education on a firm egalitarian footing by introducing land grant colleges. A slew of nation-building progressive legislation came from the Civil War president and his amen Congress.
By January 1, 1863, Lincoln was leaning toward the radicals in his party. Signing the Emancipation Proclamation was all his own. Congress did not have a say, but the legislature did give its consent to allowing Black men to join the Army.
It’s little remembered that inauguration day was moved up to January from March after Franklin Roosevelt took office with the passage of the 20th Amendment. The long interregnum between casting ballots in November and a late Winter inauguration made some sense before telephones and a revolution in transportation. By 1933, it was just destructive dead time, worse than Biden’s travail with Trump and, arguably, worse than Lincoln’s. That’s because economic catastrophe worsened after FDR’s election in the lead up to the inaugural. In Herbert Hoover’s last dismal days, banks all over the United States were closing or on the verge of failing. Could the financial system collapse? On Inauguration Day, the new president closed the banks for four days to steady the ship with his leadership. FDR refused the outgoing president’s 11th-hour plea for joint proclamation on closing the banks to distance himself from the hated Hoover.
Fortunately, FDR was not only blessed with “a first-class temperament,” but an army of congressional allies in 1932 when he engaged in “bold, persistent experimentation” to raise the sunken American economy. During the first Hundred Days, there were nearly 200 more Democrats than Republicans in the House and 23 more in the Senate. (Biden seems to have a margin of four in the House and boasts only at 48 Senators, for now.) The Emergency Banking Act was first rushed onto the Capitol floors and passed handily. Public works projects such as bridge building, art murals adorning post offices, writers exploring folklore and history, rural electrification, a civilian conservation corps (CCC): all arose from the imaginative New Deal president’s brain trust. The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the era’s grandest feats. At first, the CCC was probably closest to FDR’s heart. He described himself as a tree-planter in his Hyde Park home along the Hudson River. In a matter of months, the CCC rounded up employed 275,000 young men across the country. In 1935, an even bigger Congressional mandate allowed FDR to remake the New Deal. The 74th Congress passed, and Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, his most enduring legislation. Having 72 Democrats in the U.S. Senate out of 96 seats helped.
So how can Biden deal best with the bad hand he’s been dealt? He’ll use executive authority where he can bypass a recalcitrant Senate, of course. But Biden will need to be cautious, too, lest his stroke-of-the-pen orders face difficulties in the courts as many of Obama’s did, such as DACA and his recess appointments. He’ll try to find some common-ground issues with the GOP—vaccine distribution, the long-delayed infrastructure week, and so on. Mostly he’ll need to put his agencies to work. A Justice Department with a muscular Antitrust Division and a Federal Trade Commission that scrutinizes mergers and then blocks them could prove a way to broaden his support and repair the economy not only through the dangerous shoals of the pandemic but over the long term. In some ways, Biden is not unlike Truman in 1946, who was filling out Roosevelt’s fourth term. Republicans picked up 55 House seats in that first, post-war election (Richard Nixon and Joe McCarthy were among the winners) and 12 in the Senate. He had little chance of getting much passed. But he did take strong action integrating the military and prosecuting the Cold War, even if his bid for national health insurance died as painfully as Bill and Hillary’s. But America in 1946 had won the war and had half the world’s GOP. Biden will have to make do with much less—a divided, disease-ravaged, recession-plagued nation that even the greatest crisis presidents of the past might have a hard time rallying.


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-27--How Trump Killed Political Blogging

How Trump Killed Political Blogging

Political blogging was born in the Bush years , peaked under Obama , and mostly died in the Trump Era .
The decline is partly explained by the mainstream media adopting some of blogging ’ s strongest features and hiring some of its talent—think Ezra Klein and Greg Sargent .
But the most important factor is that straight journalists finally internalized that it ’ s part of their job to tell the reader when they ’ re being lied to .
The mainstream media didn ’ t see it that way when the topic was invading Iraq to deal with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mass destruction .
The political press corps was tentative in combating Birtherism and the Tea Party ’ s response to the election of a black man .
At times , they were still somewhat credulous and deferential with the Obama administration .
Yet , it was Trump ’ s flurry of incontrovertible falsehoods that led the Washington Post to put the famed “ Democracy Dies in Darkness ” banner up shortly after his inauguration .
Today , after four years of covering his presidency , straight news reports are blog-like in the way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statements .
This has made blogging less vital , and less unique .
A good example of this admirable adoption of blogging sensibilities can be found in Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey ’ s coverage of Trump ’ s Thanksgiving appearance from a diminutive desk in the Diplomatic Room of the White House , where he took questions for the first time since he lost the November 3 election .
I try to imagine what it would have been like in 2002-03 if the Washington Post had written , “ Bush said he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without evidence , that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons .
His foreign policy team has been widely mocked – and the United Nations inspectors have contradicted almost every claim as they ’ ve scoured the country in vain looking for weapons of mass destruction.
” Dawsey also wrote that “ Trump continued to falsely claim that there had been widespread voter fraud in his election , without offering proof .
And he again falsely said Republican poll watchers were not allowed to observe in Pennsylvania… ” In a similar vein , Michael @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Times noted that Trump ’ s Thanksgiving remarks “ reiterated baseless claims of fraud that he said would make it ‘ very hard ’ to concede ” his defeat .
If unfounded claims from the White House had been treated that way in the lead-up to the Iraq war , I don ’ t think the progressive blogosphere would have taken off in the way that it did .
The way Crowley concluded his piece gives the kind of satisfaction that only bloggers used to provide : At times , Mr. Trump shifted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of fraud to complaints that the political battlefield had been slanted against him , casting the news media and technology companies as his enemies .
“ If the media were honest and big tech was fair , it wouldn ’ t even be a contest , ” he said .
“ And I would have won by a tremendous amount.
” After seeming to concede reality , Mr. Trump quickly caught himself and revised his conditional statement .
“ And I did win by a tremendous amount , ” he added .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear that that president is lying , making lame excuses , contradicting himself , and acting in a delusional manner .
It ’ s a shame that it ’ s necessary to characterize the president ’ s remarks this way , but it ’ s essential .
Trump sensed this himself .
When Reuters White House Correspondent Jeff Mason asked if he ’ ll concede after the Electoral College votes , Trump barked : “ You ’ re just a lightweight .
Don ’ t talk to me that — don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the United States .
Don ’ t ever talk to the president that way.
” Political blogging was born of media deference to the president .
It died in large part because the media woke up during Trump Era and put an end to that error .

Political blogging was born in the Bush years, peaked under Obama, and mostly died in the Trump Era. The decline is partly explained by the mainstream media adopting some of blogging’s strongest features and hiring some of its talent—think Ezra Klein and Greg Sargent. But the most important factor is that straight journalists finally internalized that it’s part of their job to tell the reader when they’re being lied to.
The mainstream media didn’t see it that way when the topic was invading Iraq to deal with Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. The political press corps was tentative in combating Birtherism and the Tea Party’s response to the election of a black man. At times, they were still somewhat credulous and deferential with the Obama administration. Yet, it was Trump’s flurry of incontrovertible falsehoods that led the Washington Post to put the famed “Democracy Dies in Darkness” banner up shortly after his inauguration. Today, after four years of covering his presidency, straight news reports are blog-like in the way they chop down lies and contradict official statements. This has made blogging less vital, and less unique.
A good example of this admirable adoption of blogging sensibilities can be found in Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey’s coverage of Trump’s Thanksgiving appearance from a diminutive desk in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, where he took questions for the first time since he lost the November 3 election.
Trump said he planned to continue to make claims of fraud about the results and said, without evidence, that Biden could not have won close to 80 million votes. His legal team has been widely mocked — and has lost almost every claim in every state, as officials certify results for Biden.
I try to imagine what it would have been like in 2002-03 if the Washington Post had written, “Bush said he planned to invade Iraq and said, without evidence, that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons. His foreign policy team has been widely mocked – and the United Nations inspectors have contradicted almost every claim as they’ve scoured the country in vain looking for weapons of mass destruction.”
Dawsey also wrote that “Trump continued to falsely claim that there had been widespread voter fraud in his election, without offering proof. And he again falsely said Republican poll watchers were not allowed to observe in Pennsylvania…” In a similar vein, Michael Crowley, writing for the New York Times noted that Trump’s Thanksgiving remarks “reiterated baseless claims of fraud that he said would make it ‘very hard’ to concede” his defeat.
If unfounded claims from the White House had been treated that way in the lead-up to the Iraq war, I don’t think the progressive blogosphere would have taken off in the way that it did. The way Crowley concluded his piece gives the kind of satisfaction that only bloggers used to provide:
At times, Mr. Trump shifted his explanation of his defeat from claims of fraud to complaints that the political battlefield had been slanted against him, casting the news media and technology companies as his enemies. “If the media were honest and big tech was fair, it wouldn’t even be a contest,” he said. “And I would have won by a tremendous amount.” After seeming to concede reality, Mr. Trump quickly caught himself and revised his conditional statement. “And I did win by a tremendous amount,” he added.
This has an appropriate mocking tone, making clear that that president is lying, making lame excuses, contradicting himself, and acting in a delusional manner. It’s a shame that it’s necessary to characterize the president’s remarks this way, but it’s essential. Trump sensed this himself. When Reuters White House Correspondent Jeff Mason asked if he’ll concede after the Electoral College votes, Trump barked: “You’re just a lightweight. Don’t talk to me that — don’t talk — I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.”
Political blogging was born of media deference to the president. It died in large part because the media woke up during Trump Era and put an end to that error.


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-28--Can Boris Johnson and Joe Biden Find Happiness?

In April 2016 , two months before the Brexit vote that untethered the United Kingdom from the European Union , Boris Johnson penned a seething article criticizing Barack Obama .
Why was Johnson , a champion of Brexit and then the mayor of London , so irked at the American .
president ?
Obama had ‘ intervened ’ as some saw it , in the Brexit campaign , warning against an exit from the EU and he irked Johnson and his allies by announcing plans to discuss the negatives of Brexit on his visit to the UK .
Johnson ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Brexit debate was angry but not untoward .
But Johnson ’ s line critiquing Obama for removing a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office because the statue was “ a symbol of the part-Kenyan President ’ s ancestral dislike of the British empire.
” First , Johnson was wrong about the bust removal .
He claimed that Obama had the sculpture removed from the Oval Office based on some animus towards Britain ’ s wartime leader misleading reports at the time .
Johnson was incorrect .
The bust had been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the duration of his time in office .
When Bush ’ s time was up in 2009 , the bust left with him .
Regardless of the semantics surrounding the bust ’ s whereabouts , the article itself and the language in it caused uproar and wide condemnation given the born-in-Kenya charge that was at the heart of the birther movement .
Even Churchill ’ s politician grandson was damning of the article and the comment However , this was a rare , dark moment in an otherwise remarkably close relationship between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There are many famous moments of shared unity , destiny , and strength .
Our shared mother tongue has no doubt helped with this , despite the age-old gag that we ’ re two people separated by a common language .
Our shared stances in 20th and 21st-century conflicts , including both World Wars , the Cold War , the Gulf War , and the War on Terror , have contributed to cohesive military collaboration .
All those BBC shows on American television , and US football exhibition games in London ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Also , the key to the tight bond has been the close relationships of many Presidential-Prime Ministerial duos .
From Roosevelt and Truman ’ s strong military-based relationship with Churchill , through Reagan and Thatcher ’ s shared conservative ideologies and even more recently with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair reshaping their left-of-center parties and George W. Bush and Blair tied together in the War on Terror , UK and US leadership have been in lockstep – or near enough – for decades .
But , now in 2020 , Boris Johnson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will begin a journey with Joe Biden , the self-described brother of the President that Johnson derided with a Kenya barb .
The history of the relationship since the beginning of the 1900s brings me to a cautiously confident , yes .
The ties between the two countries are too close for any personal rupture to be serious .
Only once since the fateful Suez Crisis of the 1950s , when the two nations squared off on different sides of Israel ’ s push into the Sinai , have London and Washington been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 80s when Reagan ’ s Administration invaded Grenada , for which Thatcher publicly approved , but privately and furiously did not .
However , two men ’ s politics and agendas put them at odds .
Johnson is firmly on the right of UK politics , whereas Biden is , of course , left of center .
Biden also has a much tougher stance than his predecessor on the UK Withdrawal Agreement with the EU .
The negotiations are taking place between the UK team led by David Frost and Michel Barnier and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slow , but the temperature is heating up , with December 31 the key date .
If a deal is not agreed , then the UK leaves with a ‘ No Deal , ’ the ramifications of which are unclear .
The UK would be left trading with most of the world on ‘ WTO rules ’ , meaning high tariffs for the UK when trading .
Whereas Trump did not delve too far into the Brexit debate , other than barking his approval , the incoming President-Elect has made his stance very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in foreign relations , having spent over three decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and even chaired it for two two-year periods .
Biden has a deep understanding of the importance of multilateral work , whereas Trump condemned it .
Biden does not want any damage done by the UK that could undo the work of the Good Friday Agreement forged between the Irish Republic , the political leadership of the Irish Republican Army and the UK during the Clinton Administration .
Biden doubled down on this stance as recently as this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a press statement : “ We do not want a guarded ( Irish ) border .
We ’ ve worked too long to get Ireland worked out… The idea of having a border north and south once again being closed is just not right….
” This puts pressure Johnson .
The Irish Border has been a problem for Boris Johnson since he became Prime Minister last year and reaching an agreement with all parties won ’ t be easy .
The Good Friday Agreement stipulates there must be free movement between the Republic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remains a part of the United Kingdom .
Until Brexit , that was easy enough since both Ireland and the UK were part of the European Union .
The EU , US , and the Irish Republic have stated clearly that this must not be compromised in any way .
Those who voted for Brexit , however , insist it means a hard border between all regions of the UK and the EU including customs , passports , and the like .
Johnson promised that there would be no separate rules for any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , campaigners , and voters have tried to hold him accountable for that .
More on that here .
It looked like the EU had won the tug of war when Johnson appeared to commit to a border down the Irish Sea – meaning that any tariffs or checks that would need to be imposed on goods or people traveling to the country from Ireland would be imposed on the journey from Ireland or Northern Ireland to mainland UK as opposed to when crossing from to Northern Ireland .
However , Johnson has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ override any potential Brexit deal and the dealings with the Border .
Many critics , both for and against Brexit , say the legislation could be in contravention of International Law .
This legislative threat posed to the Good Friday Agreement by Johnson will not be well received in Foggy Bottom or the White House .
Further underlining Biden ’ s commitment to upholding the peace process is his recently announced first official Presidential visit , which will be a visit to the Republic of Ireland next year , the symbolism of which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden applying pressure , Johnson and his negotiating team know that they need to solve the Brexit agreement fast or lose out on the chance for a new US-UK trade deal .
A deal is essential as the US trade agreements with the UK are all based on their being part of the EU .
When Britain unmoors herself from the continent , she ’ ll desperately need a trade accord with Washington .
In 2018 the US accounted for 19 percent of the UK ’ s exports and $ 4.5 billion of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the intimate ties between London and New York in the world of finance .
The UK needs the US if it is to thrive at all post-Brexit .
And that is not the only sticking point for a UK-US trade deal .
The regularity with which the phrase ‘ Chlorinated Chicken ’ is mentioned in the same sentence as the notion of a trade deal demonstrates the trepidation with which many Brits approach the idea .
Fears over health codes and food standards dominate the discourse , There are fears in the UK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prized National Health Service ( NHS ) to be wrecked by private healthcare organizations from the US .
As for the US , what value does the UK still present to them as a trade partner in the 21st century ?
The UK has a diminishing place at the geopolitical and financial table .
How important is a trade deal for the US ?
It ’ s not important enough , it seems , to prioritize negotiating a deal in the first 100 days for the incoming President .
Another problem for Johnson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spirit in British politics , Sir Keir Starmer , now the leader of the opposition Labour Party , a figure considered to be a potential great unifier of the left and center .
Starmer has is thorn in Johnson ’ s side and his shadow cabinet could pose a greater issue for Johnson when it comes to relations with the Biden .
Ties have already been forged for some time between Democrat and Labour politicians .
There was never a chance Biden and Johnson ’ s relationship would be like Clinton-Blair , Reagan-Thatcher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if Jeremy Corbyn was still party leader , that would be better for Johnson .
Biden would not cozy up to a political figure , like Corbyn , derided by some in UK politics as an anti-Semite .
Being close to the US president is surely an advantage to Labour and a concern to Johnson and his Tories .
In spite of these hurdles , it is hard to imagine many closer alliances for the US .
While there are a handful of sticking points to a smooth and positive relationship between the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ Special Relationship ’ is not about the people at the top .
It is about shared history , and a cross-cultural fascination between both sides .
The ‘ Special Relationship ’ has ebbed and flowed .
Thatcher and Carter were not natural allies in office .
The same could be said for John Major and Clinton in the 90s , especially since Major ’ s Tory government was seen as helping Republicans in 1992 find dirt on Clinton ’ s years at Oxford , most of which turned out to be rubbish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and been a source of strength for both sides .
Under Biden and Johnson , it will continue , even if there are frosty moments .
The question is really about Johnson ’ s future .
He won in a landslide as Labour ’ s seats in Parliament dwindled to near historic lows .
He has nowhere to go but down now that Corbyn-style socialism is no longer the face of Labour , and the real pain of Brexit is at hand instead of the gauzy theorizing about an independent Britain unshackled form @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fall a lot more quickly if he can ’ t be seen in London and New York and Washington as a friend of Joe ’ s .

In April 2016, two months before the Brexit vote that untethered the United Kingdom from the European Union, Boris Johnson penned a seething article criticizing Barack Obama. Why was Johnson, a champion of Brexit and then the mayor of London, so irked at the American president? Obama had “intervened” as some saw it, in the Brexit campaign, warning against an exit from the EU and he irked Johnson and his allies by announcing plans to discuss the negatives of Brexit on his visit to the UK.
Johnson’s critique of Obama for inserting himself in the Brexit debate was angry but not untoward. But Johnson’s line critiquing Obama for removing a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office because the statue was “a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire.”caused much controversy for it’s racist undertones.
First, Johnson was wrong about the bust removal. He claimed that Obama had the sculpture removed from the Oval Office based on some animus towards Britain’s wartime leader misleading reports at the time. Johnson was incorrect. The bust had been loaned to the Bush Administration from 2001 for the duration of his time in office. When Bush’s time was up in 2009, the bust left with him. Regardless of the semantics surrounding the bust’s whereabouts, the article itself and the language in it caused uproar and wide condemnation given the born-in-Kenya charge that was at the heart of the birther movement. Even Churchill’s politician grandson was damning of the article and the comment.
However, this was a rare, dark moment in an otherwise remarkably close relationship between the UK and the United States. There are many famous moments of shared unity, destiny, and strength. Our shared mother tongue has no doubt helped with this, despite the age-old gag that we’re two people separated by a common language. Our shared stances in 20th and 21st-century conflicts, including both World Wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and the War on Terror, have contributed to cohesive military collaboration. All those BBC shows on American television, and U.S. football exhibition games in London’s Wembley stadium don’t hurt either.
Also, the key to the tight bond has been the close relationships of many presidential-prime ministerial duos. From Roosevelt and Truman’s strong military-based relationship with Churchill, through Reagan and Thatcher’s shared conservative ideologies and even more recently with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair reshaping their left-of-center parties, and George W. Bush and Blair tied together in the War on Terror, UK and U.S. leadership have been in lockstep—or near enough—for decades.
But now in 2020, Boris Johnson is the British prime minister. He will begin a journey with Joe Biden, the self-described brother of the president that Johnson derided with a Kenya barb.
Can the “special relationship” survive a Biden-Johnson partnership?
The history of the relationship since the beginning of the 1900s brings me to a cautiously confident, yes. The ties between the two countries are too close for any personal rupture to be serious. Only once since the fateful Suez Crisis of the 1950s, when the two nations squared off on different sides of Israel’s push into the Sinai, have London and Washington been remotely at odds. That includes the 80s when Reagan’s Administration invaded Grenada, for which Thatcher publicly approved, but privately and furiously did not.
However, the two men’s politics and agendas put them at odds. Johnson is firmly on the right of UK politics, whereas Biden is, of course, left of center. Biden also has a much tougher stance than his predecessor on the UK Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. The negotiations are taking place between the UK team led by David Frost and Michel Barnier and his EU delegation. Negotiations have been slow, but the temperature is heating up, with December 31 the key date. If a deal is not agreed, then the UK leaves with a ‘No Deal,’ the ramifications of which are unclear. The UK would be left trading with most of the world on “WTO rules”, meaning high tariffs for the UK when trading.
Whereas Trump did not delve too far into the Brexit debate, other than barking his approval, the incoming President-Elect has made his stance very clear. Biden has a long history in foreign relations, having spent over three decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and even chaired it for two two-year periods. Biden has a deep understanding of the importance of multilateral work, whereas Trump condemned it. Biden does not want any damage done by the UK that could undo the work of the Good Friday Agreement forged between the Irish Republic, the political leadership of the Irish Republican Army and the UK during the Clinton Administration. Biden doubled down on this stance as recently as earlier this month when he said in a press statement: “We do not want a guarded (Irish) border. We’ve worked too long to get Ireland worked out… The idea of having a border north and south once again being closed is just not right….”
This puts pressure on Johnson. The Irish Border has been a problem for Boris Johnson since he became prime minister last year and reaching an agreement with all parties won’t be easy.
The Good Friday Agreement stipulates there must be free movement between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which remains a part of the United Kingdom. Until Brexit, that was easy enough since both Ireland and the UK were part of the European Union. The EU, U.S., and the Republic of Ireland have stated clearly that this must not be compromised in any way. Those who voted for Brexit, however, insist it means a hard border between all regions of the UK and the EU including customs, passports, and the like. Johnson promised that there would be no separate rules for any region of the UK, and MPs, campaigners, and voters have tried to hold him accountable for that. More on that here.
It looked like the EU had won the tug of war when Johnson appeared to commit to a border down the Irish Sea—meaning that any tariffs or checks that would need to be imposed on goods or people traveling to the country from Ireland would be imposed on the journey from Ireland or Northern Ireland to mainland UK as opposed to when crossing from to Northern Ireland. However, Johnson has since put forward legislation in Parliament to override any potential Brexit deal and the dealings with the Border. Many critics, both for and against Brexit, say the legislation could be in contravention of International Law. This legislative threat posed to the Good Friday Agreement by Johnson will not be well received in Foggy Bottom or the White House. Further underlining Biden’s commitment to upholding the peace process is his recently announced first official Presidential visit, which will be a visit to the Republic of Ireland next year, the symbolism of which is not lost on London.
With Biden applying pressure, Johnson and his negotiating team know that they need to solve the Brexit agreement fast or lose out on the chance for a new U.S.-UK trade deal. A deal is essential as the U.S. trade agreements with the UK are all based on their being part of the EU. When Britain unmoors herself from the continent, she’ll desperately need a trade accord with Washington. In 2018 the U.S. accounted for 19 percent of the UK’s exports and $4.5 billion of its tourist dollars, not to mention the intimate ties between London and New York in the world of finance. The UK needs the U.S. if it is to thrive at all post-Brexit.
And that is not the only sticking point for a UK-U.S. trade deal. The regularity with which the phrase “Chlorinated Chicken” is mentioned in the same sentence as the notion of a trade deal demonstrates the trepidation with which many Brits approach the idea. Fears over health codes and food standards dominate the discourse. There are fears in the UK that a deal would open up our prized National Health Service (NHS) to be wrecked by private healthcare organizations from the U.S.
As for the U.S., what value does the UK still present to them as a trade partner in the 21st century? The UK has a diminishing place at the geopolitical and financial table. How important is a trade deal for the U.S.? It’s not important enough, it seems, to prioritize negotiating a deal in the first 100 days for the incoming president.
Another problem for Johnson is that Biden already has a kindred spirit in British politics, Sir Keir Starmer, now the leader of the opposition Labour Party, a figure considered to be a potential great unifier of the left and center. Starmer has his thorn in Johnson’s side and his shadow cabinet could pose a greater issue for Johnson when it comes to relations with the Biden. Ties have already been forged for some time between Democrat and Labour politicians. There was never a chance Biden and Johnson’s relationship would be like Clinton-Blair, Reagan-Thatcher, Churchill-Roosevelt, or Churchill-Truman, but if Jeremy Corbyn was still party leader, that would be better for Johnson. Biden would not cozy up to a political figure, like Corbyn, derided by some in UK politics as an anti-Semite. Being close to the U.S. president is surely an advantage to Labour and a concern to Johnson and his Tories.
In spite of these hurdles, it is hard to imagine many closer alliances for the U.S. While there are a handful of sticking points to a smooth and positive relationship between the two leaders, the strength of the ‘Special Relationship’ is not about the people at the top. It is about shared history,and a cross-cultural fascination between both sides. The ‘Special Relationship’ has ebbed and flowed. Thatcher and Carter were not natural allies in office. The same could be said for John Major and Clinton in the 90s, especially since Major’s Tory government was seen as helping Republicans in 1992 find dirt on Clinton’s years at Oxford, most of which turned out to be rubbish. However, the relationship has endured and been a source of strength for both sides. Under Biden and Johnson, it will continue, even if there are frosty moments. The question is really about Johnson’s future. He won in a landslide as Labour’s seats in Parliament dwindled to near historic lows. He has nowhere to go but down now that Corbyn-style socialism is no longer the face of Labour, and the real pain of Brexit is at hand instead of the gauzy theorizing about an independent Britain unshackled form EU bureaucrats in Brussels. Boris will fall a lot more quickly if he can’t be seen in London and New York and Washington as a friend of Joe’s.


washingtonmonthly--2020-11-30--Trump Is Leaving. The Assault on Truth Is Not.

Joe Biden has promised Americans that he will restore civility to our government .
The longtime , mild-mannered politician has pledged to “ marshal the forces of decency ” and restore honor to the White House .
He has made a point of saying that he will listen to experts and scientists , especially when it comes to the pandemic .
There is no doubt that the Biden administration will be more reasoned and factual than Trump ’ s .
But in our broader politics , Trumpism is here to stay .
The contempt for objective truth made popular by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ imprint on the Republican Party for years .
Just look downballot .
Lindsey Graham , recently reelected , cited “ system failure , fraud , ” and “ a lot of shenanigans ” to explain Trump ’ s defeat.
” Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene supports QAnon , a conspiracy theory that Democrats are sex trafficking .
( Trump called her “ a future Republican star.
” ) Republican Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville , who once said Trump was sent to us by God , has amplified the president ’ s debunked claims of massive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showcased his lack of basic knowledge about the government saying that the three branches of government are “ the House , the Senate , and the executive.
” Trump has opened the door for those who not only believe his lies but also wouldn ’ t pass a middle school history class to win the highest offices of government .
Unfortunately , disinformation has trickled down to the populace .
A Monmouth University poll found that seven-in-ten Republicans think Biden only won because of “ voter fraud.
” A week after the election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supporters filled the streets of Washington , D.C. , falsely claiming that the president won the election in what was called “ the Million MAGA March.
” At the Monthly , we ’ ve worked throughout the last four years to call out and correct falsehoods .
We have fact-checked the president ’ s incorrect economic arguments , and we have rigorously exposed vote-by-mail lies .
But we ’ ve also been engaged in a deeper form of fact-finding .
From ringing early alarm bells on monopolies to reenvisioning higher education as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Monthly digs up data about U.S. policy before it crosses the radars of policymakers and mainstream media outlets .
We were one of the first publications to report on voting by mail , writing about the system ’ s ability to increase turnout as early as 2012 .
While the right lies to fit its agenda , the Monthly uses the truth as the foundation to create novel solutions to the problems our country faces .
But as a nonprofit news source , we rely on funding from readers like you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NewsMatch , your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar if you contribute before the end of the year .
Give whatever you can— $ 5 , $ 50 , $ 500—but keep in mind that any donation of $ 50 or more will earn you a one-year , complimentary subscription to the print edition of the Washington Monthly .

Joe Biden has promised Americans that he will restore civility to our government. The longtime, mild-mannered politician has pledged to “marshal the forces of decency” and restore honor to the White House. He has made a point of saying that he will listen to experts and scientists, especially when it comes to the pandemic.
There is no doubt that the Biden administration will be more reasoned and factual than Trump’s. But in our broader politics, Trumpism is here to stay. The contempt for objective truth made popular by the soon-to-be former president will leave its imprint on the Republican Party for years. Just look downballot. Lindsey Graham, recently reelected, cited “system failure, fraud,” and “a lot of shenanigans” to explain Trump’s defeat.” Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene supports QAnon, a conspiracy theory that Democrats are sex trafficking. (Trump called her “a future Republican star.”) Republican Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville, who once said Trump was sent to us by God, has amplified the president’s debunked claims of massive voter fraud. The Alabaman has also showcased his lack of basic knowledge about the government saying that the three branches of government are “the House, the Senate, and the executive.” Trump has opened the door for those who not only believe his lies but also wouldn’t pass a middle school history class to win the highest offices of government.
Unfortunately, disinformation has trickled down to the populace. A Monmouth University poll found that seven-in-ten Republicans think Biden only won because of “voter fraud.” A week after the election was called, thousands of maskless Trump supporters filled the streets of Washington, D.C., falsely claiming that the president won the election in what was called “the Million MAGA March.”
At the Monthly, we’ve worked throughout the last four years to call out and correct falsehoods. We have fact-checked the president’s incorrect economic arguments, and we have rigorously exposed vote-by-mail lies. But we’ve also been engaged in a deeper form of fact-finding. From ringing early alarm bells on monopolies to reenvisioning higher education as a public service rather than a consumer good, the Monthly digs up data about U.S. policy before it crosses the radars of policymakers and mainstream media outlets. We were one of the first publications to report on voting by mail, writing about the system’s ability to increase turnout as early as 2012. While the right lies to fit its agenda, the Monthly uses the truth as the foundation to create novel solutions to the problems our country faces.
But as a nonprofit news source, we rely on funding from readers like you. Thanks to a generous grant from NewsMatch, your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar if you contribute before the end of the year. Give whatever you can—$5, $50, $500—but keep in mind that any donation of $50 or more will earn you a one-year, complimentary subscription to the print edition of the Washington Monthly.


washingtonmonthly--2020-12-02--Reporters of Color Are Declaring Independence

In 1968 , a report issued by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders—better known as the Kerner Commission—excoriated the national press for its role in the racial unrest that rocked America in the summer of 1967 .
“ The media report and write from the standpoint of a white man ’ s world , ” the commission wrote .
“ The ills of the ghetto , the difficulties of life there , the Negro ’ s burning sense of grievance , are seldom conveyed.
” Instead , the commission found , American coverage was rife with “ the biases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white America.
” Especially appalling , the commission found , was the dearth of Black journalists in U.S. newsrooms .
Fewer than 5 percent of newsroom staff were Black ; fewer than 1 percent were editors .
“ The journalistic profession has been shockingly backward in seeking out , hiring , training , and promoting Negroes , ” the commission concluded .
More than 50 years later , after another summer of protest and racial reckoning , too much of what the commission wrote is still true .
While there ’ s no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ newsroom staff today who are Black , research suggests that it ’ s less than 8 percent—still far too low .
Overall , newsrooms are only about half as diverse as the U.S. workforce as a whole .
Controversies over insensitive and racist coverage have embroiled major legacy and digital outlets , including the Los Angeles Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , Refinery29 , and the Ringer .
At The Philadelphia Inquirer , a story about the impacts of unrest on city infrastructure headlined “ Buildings Matter Too ” led to a staff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the resignation of a top editor .
At The New York Times , an op-ed by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton calling for military intervention to quell protests led to another high-level editor ’ s ouster .
Many of the paper ’ s own reporters took to Twitter to declare that the op-ed “ puts Black @ nytimes staff in danger.
” At the same time , energy and interest in a more diverse , equitable , and inclusive media has never been more intense .
Nor has the need for it been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is leading the way .
Champions of media diversity have stopped waiting for the establishment to fix itself .
Instead , a new crop of reformers is staging its own insurgency , working outside traditional media and often in spite of it .
“ I don ’ t know that we can integrate fairly at this point , ” Angela Ford , founder of the Black media start-up Obsidian Collection , says .
“ It ’ s time for the world to hear the Black voice from a Black filter.
” The result @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of nonprofits , philanthropic efforts , and media start-ups led largely by people of color .
New outlets are serving overlooked communities , experimenting with ways to engage audiences and giving journalists of color a platform for their voice .
Media upstart PushBlack , for instance , covers topics like voting rights and criminal justice reform and Black history .
Sahan Journal , launched in 2019 by a Somali American reporter , focuses exclusively on the concerns of Minnesota ’ s immigrant and refugee communities .
Both of these outlets have the financial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fund ( REJ Fund ) , an ambitious project recently launched by the Ford Foundation and other partners to grow and sustain an emerging sector in equitable media .
These outlets are critical sources of information for minority communities .
But minorities are not the only audience .
Billboard magazine , for instance , reported that the singer Mariah Carey urged all of her listeners to follow PushBlack .
Sahan Journal won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists for a piece on drug overdoses among Minnesota ’ s East African community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ content and learning , ” says Tracie Powell , a former journalist and independent publisher who is now a program officer at Borealis Philanthropy , which works on racial justice in media .
“ They ’ re plugged into Black Twitter ; they ’ re seeing content on Facebook and Instagram .
They are being exposed and being educated.
” Emerging outlets like these , Powell told me , are not just powerful advocates for communities too long ignored by white-led press , but also catalysts for broader reform .
Their goal is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against it , and , ultimately , to transform an industry that has been far too reluctant to change .
Journalists of color are justifiably frustrated by traditional media ’ s lackluster attempts at diversity .
There have been umpteen minority fellowships , internships , and splashy awards created by big-city newsrooms .
( I got my first clips via a minority high school journalism workshop sponsored by my hometown paper , The Kansas City Star . )
But the pace of change has been glacial ; diversity efforts have been inauthentic ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with tokenism , stigma , and bias , as well as systemic barriers to entry and promotion .
Paul Delaney , who cofounded the National Association of Black Journalists in 1975 , wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2017 that when he started the NABJ , “ we felt empowered , on a righteous mission to lead America in the right direction , to egg it on to finally live up to its promise and principles .
We were so naively optimistic back then.
” Here ’ s one basic problem with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually know the share of journalists in U.S. newsrooms who are people of color .
According to the News Leaders Association ’ s 2019 Diversity Survey , people of color make up 21.9 percent of the salaried newsroom workforce and 18.8 percent of newsroom managers .
( The U.S. population , by contrast , is 40 percent minority . )
However , just 23 percent of U.S. newsrooms participated in the survey , up from only 17 percent the year before .
“ As journalists , we put pressure on every industry there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give us the information , ” Dorothy Tucker , the NABJ ’ s current president , told me .
“ Yet we won ’ t do it .
It makes you question whether there is a problem with the numbers.
” Certainly , other white-collar professions face equal or greater problems with diversity .
Just 10 percent of lawyers are Black or Hispanic , according to the American Bar Association .
Big Tech is also notoriously monolithic .
The press , however , has a particular obligation to the public because of its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It has an obligation to employ a workforce that reflects the communities it purports to serve , which makes its failure to do so all the more galling .
Why is it failing so badly ?
For aspiring journalists of color , perhaps the biggest obstacles are the lack of connections and capital .
Minority journalists often have a harder time plugging into the clubby networks of ( typically white , typically male ) editors looking for talent .
“ The journos of color and women aren ’ t networking with white dudes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t in their DNA , ” Shani Hilton , now deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times , wrote in a 2014 Medium piece .
“ Call it the Twice as Hard Half as Good Paradox : Many of us are so busy working twice as hard and hoping to get noticed that we don ’ t do the networking that seems like bullshit but is actually a key part of career advancement , ” she wrote .
Many young people of color also can ’ t afford the luxury of an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a freelancer , often prerequisites for scraping together enough bylines to land a full-time job .
In a 2015 analysis for the Columbia Journalism Review , Alex Williams found that while 66 percent of white journalism graduates found jobs in print or broadcasting in 2013 , the placement rate for minority graduates was only 49 percent .
Part of the problem , Williams surmised , was that minority students were less likely to have worked for their campus newspapers or to have had unpaid internships .
“ If you ’ re Black or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ low-income working-class community , you ’ re starting from behind compared to a middle-class white person who can rely on generational wealth while they pursue their passion career , ” says Manny Ramos , a Chicago Sun-Times reporter who described his own start in journalism as “ extremely difficult.
” “ At one point , I had an internship at a local paper , I worked full-time , and I went to school full-time , ” he told me .
“ I had no life and was barely sleeping .
A lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For journalists of color who do make it through the door , the challenges continue .
Minority journalists are often seen , not heard , their advice ignored .
The result is another frustration : missed stories and unbalanced coverage that too often depends on stereotypes and assumptions—and leads to the kinds of controversies that beset big newsrooms over this past summer .
Promotion and influence are the next big hurdles .
Diversity efforts often end at the entry level , with little thought to retention and advancement .
“ They bring this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black spot.
’ Unfortunately , too often , they don ’ t do much more than that , ” the NABJ ’ s Tucker said .
This is one reason why upper management in media is even less diverse than the rank and file .
For instance , just 8.2 percent of radio news directors are people of color , according to a 2019 survey by the Radio Television Digital News Association .
Just 5.5 percent of TV news directors are Black—down from 6.4 percent in 2018 .
Sadly , things aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ newsrooms , financially strapped even before the pandemic , now see diversity as an unaffordable luxury .
The NABJ said that as many as half of its members surveyed have been furloughed or laid off .
“ If it was hard to get diversity , inclusion , and representation before , it ’ s that much harder now because people are getting laid off , the industry is shrinking , and there ’ s a panicked focus on profit , ” says Jessica Clark , founder of the media strategy firm Dot Connector @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Foundation .
This bleak landscape in traditional media is why a growing number of journalists , social entrepreneurs , and philanthropists are embracing a different vision of diversity in media , and a different means to achieve it .
They ’ re tired of fighting for a place at the table , and then fighting for the kind of coverage they ’ d like to see .
For these reformers , diversity goes beyond the integration of big-city newsrooms .
Rather , it ’ s about multiplying the number of voices so that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and information relevant to them .
Instead of writing about their communities for primarily white audiences , they ’ re writing for these communities as active members .
“ Let ’ s be honest , ” Borealis Philanthropy ’ s Powell said .
“ We have been begging , pleading , crying , yelling at the top of our lungs for news organizations to reflect the communities they say they serve .
And those organizations made it very , very clear that they are not serving the Black and brown people in their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do you say , let ’ s stop ?
At what point do you try something different ?
” Among the journalists who broke from the establishment to blaze their own trail is Sahan Journal founder Mukhtar Ibrahim , whose editors at Minnesota Public Radio and the Minneapolis Star Tribune discouraged him from pursuing stories about the area ’ s immigrants .
“ I worked hard to open pathways to communities that were invisible to mainstream reporters , ” he wrote in The Investigative Reporters and Editors Journal .
“ I realized , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not committed to forging new relationships with these communities.
” Ibrahim launched Sahan Journal in August 2019 .
The journal is part of a larger boom in nonprofit publishing , much of it driven by journalists and social entrepreneurs who put diversity , equity , and inclusion at the heart of their mission .
The Institute for Nonprofit News reports that its membership is approaching 300 , double what it was three years ago .
Many of these new outlets are aimed at serving diverse populations , which is why the universe of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ traditional , for-profit media .
According to the INN ’ s 2020 Diversity Index , roughly one in three nonprofit news employees is a person of color , as is one in five executives .
“ These younger organizations are diverse from the get-go , ” the INN ’ s executive director , Sue Cross , told me .
These outlets ’ strategies are also as diverse as their staffs .
PushBlack , which reaches nine million readers exclusively through text messages and social media , runs campaigns on voter education and criminal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Black news and history .
MLK50 is a Tennessee-based investigative news organization founded in 2017 by the veteran reporter Wendi Thomas .
In 2019 , Thomas partnered with ProPublica on a series that led to the forgiveness of $ 11.9 million in hospital debts owed by low-income patients of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis .
Nonprofits are also still working to desegregate traditional newsrooms .
The NABJ , for instance , hopes to turn up the pressure on pipelines for retention and promotion so that more journalists of color populate the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the highest echelons of investigative and political reporters .
At the entry level , Report for America trains and places emerging journalists in local newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities .
This year , it placed 226 reporters in 47 states , in a variety of outlets ranging from big-city newsrooms to digital-only start-ups .
The organization also pays half of reporters ’ salaries , enabling outlets to get coverage they otherwise couldn ’ t afford .
“ I like to think that I ’ m good enough to get hired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Report for America corps member placed with The Dallas Morning News .
“ But I do believe that without the funding , I ’ m not sure the newspaper was looking to bring in another Hispanic issues reporter.
” Manuel has since been hired full-time .
The emerging diversity ecosystem also has its share of for-profit outlets experimenting with new models for generating revenue .
The Chicago-based Obsidian Collection , for instance , aims to launch a stock photo service composed exclusively of images licensed from Black legacy newspapers and photographers .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working to digitize nine million images from the archives of Black newspapers across the country , including such storied outlets as her hometown ’ s Chicago Defender .
She ’ s also working on a separate portal for Black photojournalists to upload and sell their work .
“ When we protest , when we celebrate , we want those images through the eyes of Black photo-journalists available to Black media , ” she said .
“ This gives photojournalists a revenue stream and the Black media access to images in a timely manner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of innovation , however , many new outlets are still financially fragile .
A Borealis survey of 114 outlets led by and for people of color found that nearly four in five organizations have staffs of five or fewer and that one-third have experienced layoffs .
Just 39 percent of outlets reported revenues of more than $ 100,000 ( though one-fifth also declined to answer ) .
To preserve the progress made so far , the Ford Foundation , along with the Democracy Fund , Craig Newmark Philanthropies , and other partners , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in September 2019 with $ 6.1 million in initial commitments .
Administered by Borealis , the fund distributed $ 2.3 million to 16 outlets in April 2020 led by and serving communities of color .
It hopes to grow to $ 30 million over the next three years , according to cofounder Farai Chideya , a program officer at the Ford Foundation .
The grantees include PushBlack , Sahan Journal , and MLK50 ; Black legacy outlets such as The New York Amsterdam News and The Atlanta Voice ; organizations such as Buffalo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communities in the Northern Great Plains ; La Noticia , a Spanish-language outlet based in North Carolina ; and WURD Radio , Pennsylvania ’ s only Black-owned commercial talk radio station .
Many of these are helping keep local news alive in places where regional newspapers have collapsed .
One purpose of the REJ Fund is to help fix an imbalance in philanthropic funding for media initiatives led by people of color .
According to a report by Chideya for the Ford Foundation , media outlets serving diverse communities received just 8 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and 2017 .
Given how much has already been achieved by outlets operating on a shoestring , the potential impact at scale could be transformative .
“ What I believe in this moment is that the field is being remade , ” said the INN ’ s Sue Cross .
“ It ’ s up to us to make sure it doesn ’ t dissipate.
” Fifty years ago , the Kerner Commission concluded its report with a call to action , urging that “ the painful process of readjustment that is required @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now.
” What ’ s demanded , the commission continued , is “ fair and courageous journalism—commitment and coverage that are worthy of one of the crucial domestic stories in America ’ s history.
” Traditional media outlets have so far failed to live up to that charge , but the new wave of media reformers—led by and for people of color—could be the ones who make a truly equitable media a reality .

This story is part of a package exploring how to rescue and revitalize journalism. Read the rest of the pieces here. And, if you enjoy what you’re reading, please consider making a donation—we’re a nonprofit media organization and rely on the support of our readers.
In 1968, a report issued by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders—better known as the Kerner Commission—excoriated the national press for its role in the racial unrest that rocked America in the summer of 1967.
“The media report and write from the standpoint of a white man’s world,” the commission wrote. “The ills of the ghetto, the difficulties of life there, the Negro’s burning sense of grievance, are seldom conveyed.” Instead, the commission found, American coverage was rife with “the biases, the paternalism, the indifference of white America.”
Especially appalling, the commission found, was the dearth of Black journalists in U.S. newsrooms. Fewer than 5 percent of newsroom staff were Black; fewer than 1 percent were editors. “The journalistic profession has been shockingly backward in seeking out, hiring, training, and promoting Negroes,” the commission concluded.
More than 50 years later, after another summer of protest and racial reckoning, too much of what the commission wrote is still true. While there’s no definitive data on the percentage of U.S. newsroom staff today who are Black, research suggests that it’s less than 8 percent—still far too low. Overall, newsrooms are only about half as diverse as the U.S. workforce as a whole.
Controversies over insensitive and racist coverage have embroiled major legacy and digital outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Refinery29, and the Ringer. At The Philadelphia Inquirer, a story about the impacts of unrest on city infrastructure headlined “Buildings Matter Too” led to a staff walkout, a public apology, and the resignation of a top editor. At The New York Times, an op-ed by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton calling for military intervention to quell protests led to another high-level editor’s ouster. Many of the paper’s own reporters took to Twitter to declare that the op-ed “puts Black @nytimes staff in danger.”
At the same time, energy and interest in a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive media has never been more intense. Nor has the need for it been greater. What has changed is who is leading the way. Champions of media diversity have stopped waiting for the establishment to fix itself. Instead, a new crop of reformers is staging its own insurgency, working outside traditional media and often in spite of it. “I don’t know that we can integrate fairly at this point,” Angela Ford, founder of the Black media start-up Obsidian Collection, says. “It’s time for the world to hear the Black voice from a Black filter.”
The result is a small but already flourishing ecosystem of nonprofits, philanthropic efforts, and media start-ups led largely by people of color. New outlets are serving overlooked communities, experimenting with ways to engage audiences and giving journalists of color a platform for their voice. Media upstart PushBlack, for instance, covers topics like voting rights and criminal justice reform and Black history. Sahan Journal, launched in 2019 by a Somali American reporter, focuses exclusively on the concerns of Minnesota’s immigrant and refugee communities. Both of these outlets have the financial backing of the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund (REJ Fund), an ambitious project recently launched by the Ford Foundation and other partners to grow and sustain an emerging sector in equitable media.
These outlets are critical sources of information for minority communities. But minorities are not the only audience. Billboard magazine, for instance, reported that the singer Mariah Carey urged all of her listeners to follow PushBlack. Sahan Journal won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists for a piece on drug overdoses among Minnesota’s East African community. “White audiences are seeing our content and learning,” says Tracie Powell, a former journalist and independent publisher who is now a program officer at Borealis Philanthropy, which works on racial justice in media. “They’re plugged into Black Twitter; they’re seeing content on Facebook and Instagram. They are being exposed and being educated.”
Emerging outlets like these, Powell told me, are not just powerful advocates for communities too long ignored by white-led press, but also catalysts for broader reform. Their goal is to challenge traditional media, to compete against it, and, ultimately, to transform an industry that has been far too reluctant to change.
Journalists of color are justifiably frustrated by traditional media’s lackluster attempts at diversity. There have been umpteen minority fellowships, internships, and splashy awards created by big-city newsrooms. (I got my first clips via a minority high school journalism workshop sponsored by my hometown paper, The Kansas City Star.) But the pace of change has been glacial; diversity efforts have been inauthentic; and journalists of color must still contend with tokenism, stigma, and bias, as well as systemic barriers to entry and promotion. Paul Delaney, who cofounded the National Association of Black Journalists in 1975, wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2017 that when he started the NABJ, “we felt empowered, on a righteous mission to lead America in the right direction, to egg it on to finally live up to its promise and principles. We were so naively optimistic back then.”
Here’s one basic problem with the industry: We don’t actually know the share of journalists in U.S. newsrooms who are people of color. According to the News Leaders Association’s 2019 Diversity Survey, people of color make up 21.9 percent of the salaried newsroom workforce and 18.8 percent of newsroom managers. (The U.S. population, by contrast, is 40 percent minority.) However, just 23 percent of U.S. newsrooms participated in the survey, up from only 17 percent the year before.
“As journalists, we put pressure on every industry there is to show us the numbers, give us the information,” Dorothy Tucker, the NABJ’s current president, told me. “Yet we won’t do it. It makes you question whether there is a problem with the numbers.”
Certainly, other white-collar professions face equal or greater problems with diversity. Just 10 percent of lawyers are Black or Hispanic, according to the American Bar Association. Big Tech is also notoriously monolithic. The press, however, has a particular obligation to the public because of its power to shape opinions and events. It has an obligation to employ a workforce that reflects the communities it purports to serve, which makes its failure to do so all the more galling.
Why is it failing so badly? For aspiring journalists of color, perhaps the biggest obstacles are the lack of connections and capital. Minority journalists often have a harder time plugging into the clubby networks of (typically white, typically male) editors looking for talent. “The journos of color and women aren’t networking with white dudes doing the hiring because it isn’t in their DNA,” Shani Hilton, now deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, wrote in a 2014 Medium piece. “Call it the Twice as Hard Half as Good Paradox: Many of us are so busy working twice as hard and hoping to get noticed that we don’t do the networking that seems like bullshit but is actually a key part of career advancement,” she wrote.
Many young people of color also can’t afford the luxury of an unpaid internship or the underpaid life of a freelancer, often prerequisites for scraping together enough bylines to land a full-time job. In a 2015 analysis for the Columbia Journalism Review, Alex Williams found that while 66 percent of white journalism graduates found jobs in print or broadcasting in 2013, the placement rate for minority graduates was only 49 percent. Part of the problem, Williams surmised, was that minority students were less likely to have worked for their campus newspapers or to have had unpaid internships.
“If you’re Black or brown and you grew up in a low-income working-class community, you’re starting from behind compared to a middle-class white person who can rely on generational wealth while they pursue their passion career,” says Manny Ramos, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter who described his own start in journalism as “extremely difficult.” “At one point, I had an internship at a local paper, I worked full-time, and I went to school full-time,” he told me. “I had no life and was barely sleeping. A lot of people can’t do that.”
For journalists of color who do make it through the door, the challenges continue. Minority journalists are often seen, not heard, their advice ignored. The result is another frustration: missed stories and unbalanced coverage that too often depends on stereotypes and assumptions—and leads to the kinds of controversies that beset big newsrooms over this past summer.
Promotion and influence are the next big hurdles. Diversity efforts often end at the entry level, with little thought to retention and advancement. “They bring this person in and give them the ‘Black spot.’ Unfortunately, too often, they don’t do much more than that,” the NABJ’s Tucker said. This is one reason why upper management in media is even less diverse than the rank and file. For instance, just 8.2 percent of radio news directors are people of color, according to a 2019 survey by the Radio Television Digital News Association. Just 5.5 percent of TV news directors are Black—down from 6.4 percent in 2018.
Sadly, things aren’t likely to get better. Many newsrooms, financially strapped even before the pandemic, now see diversity as an unaffordable luxury. The NABJ said that as many as half of its members surveyed have been furloughed or laid off. “If it was hard to get diversity, inclusion, and representation before, it’s that much harder now because people are getting laid off, the industry is shrinking, and there’s a panicked focus on profit,” says Jessica Clark, founder of the media strategy firm Dot Connector Studio and a consultant to the Ford Foundation.
This bleak landscape in traditional media is why a growing number of journalists, social entrepreneurs, and philanthropists are embracing a different vision of diversity in media, and a different means to achieve it. They’re tired of fighting for a place at the table, and then fighting for the kind of coverage they’d like to see. For these reformers, diversity goes beyond the integration of big-city newsrooms. Rather, it’s about multiplying the number of voices so that disparate communities are better equipped with news and information relevant to them. Instead of writing about their communities for primarily white audiences, they’re writing for these communities as active members.
“Let’s be honest,” Borealis Philanthropy’s Powell said. “We have been begging, pleading, crying, yelling at the top of our lungs for news organizations to reflect the communities they say they serve. And those organizations made it very, very clear that they are not serving the Black and brown people in their communities . . . At what point do you say, let’s stop? At what point do you try something different?”
Energy and interest in a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive media has never been more intense. Nor has the need for it been greater. What has changed is who is leading the way.
Among the journalists who broke from the establishment to blaze their own trail is Sahan Journal founder Mukhtar Ibrahim, whose editors at Minnesota Public Radio and the Minneapolis Star Tribune discouraged him from pursuing stories about the area’s immigrants. “I worked hard to open pathways to communities that were invisible to mainstream reporters,” he wrote in The Investigative Reporters and Editors Journal. “I realized, however, that editors and reporters were not committed to forging new relationships with these communities.” Ibrahim launched Sahan Journal in August 2019.
The journal is part of a larger boom in nonprofit publishing, much of it driven by journalists and social entrepreneurs who put diversity, equity, and inclusion at the heart of their mission. The Institute for Nonprofit News reports that its membership is approaching 300, double what it was three years ago. Many of these new outlets are aimed at serving diverse populations, which is why the universe of nonprofit news is decidedly more inclusive than traditional, for-profit media. According to the INN’s 2020 Diversity Index, roughly one in three nonprofit news employees is a person of color, as is one in five executives. “These younger organizations are diverse from the get-go,” the INN’s executive director, Sue Cross, told me.
These outlets’ strategies are also as diverse as their staffs. PushBlack, which reaches nine million readers exclusively through text messages and social media, runs campaigns on voter education and criminal justice reform in addition to its stories on Black news and history. MLK50 is a Tennessee-based investigative news organization founded in 2017 by the veteran reporter Wendi Thomas. In 2019, Thomas partnered with ProPublica on a series that led to the forgiveness of $11.9 million in hospital debts owed by low-income patients of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis.
Nonprofits are also still working to desegregate traditional newsrooms. The NABJ, for instance, hopes to turn up the pressure on pipelines for retention and promotion so that more journalists of color populate the ranks of top management, as well as the highest echelons of investigative and political reporters. At the entry level, Report for America trains and places emerging journalists in local newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities. This year, it placed 226 reporters in 47 states, in a variety of outlets ranging from big-city newsrooms to digital-only start-ups. The organization also pays half of reporters’ salaries, enabling outlets to get coverage they otherwise couldn’t afford. “I like to think that I’m good enough to get hired,” says Obed Manuel, a Report for America corps member placed with The Dallas Morning News. “But I do believe that without the funding, I’m not sure the newspaper was looking to bring in another Hispanic issues reporter.” Manuel has since been hired full-time.
Nonprofits are still working to desegregate traditional newsrooms. The National Association of Black Journalists, for instance, hopes to turn up the pressure on pipelines for retention and promotion. Report for America trains and places emerging journalists in local newsrooms to cover underreported communities.
The emerging diversity ecosystem also has its share of for-profit outlets experimenting with new models for generating revenue. The Chicago-based Obsidian Collection, for instance, aims to launch a stock photo service composed exclusively of images licensed from Black legacy newspapers and photographers. The founder, Angela Ford, is currently working to digitize nine million images from the archives of Black newspapers across the country, including such storied outlets as her hometown’s Chicago Defender. She’s also working on a separate portal for Black photojournalists to upload and sell their work. “When we protest, when we celebrate, we want those images through the eyes of Black photo-journalists available to Black media,” she said. “This gives photojournalists a revenue stream and the Black media access to images in a timely manner they can afford.”
Despite the flurry of innovation, however, many new outlets are still financially fragile. A Borealis survey of 114 outlets led by and for people of color found that nearly four in five organizations have staffs of five or fewer and that one-third have experienced layoffs. Just 39 percent of outlets reported revenues of more than $100,000 (though one-fifth also declined to answer).
To preserve the progress made so far, the Ford Foundation, along with the Democracy Fund, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, and other partners, launched the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund in September 2019 with $6.1 million in initial commitments. Administered by Borealis, the fund distributed $2.3 million to 16 outlets in April 2020 led by and serving communities of color. It hopes to grow to $30 million over the next three years, according to cofounder Farai Chideya, a program officer at the Ford Foundation. The grantees include PushBlack, Sahan Journal, and MLK50; Black legacy outlets such as The New York Amsterdam News and The Atlanta Voice; organizations such as Buffalo’s Fire, which serves tribal communities in the Northern Great Plains; La Noticia, a Spanish-language outlet based in North Carolina; and WURD Radio, Pennsylvania’s only Black-owned commercial talk radio station. Many of these are helping keep local news alive in places where regional newspapers have collapsed.
One purpose of the REJ Fund is to help fix an imbalance in philanthropic funding for media initiatives led by people of color. According to a report by Chideya for the Ford Foundation, media outlets serving diverse communities received just 8 percent of journalism philanthropy funding granted between 2013 and 2017.
Given how much has already been achieved by outlets operating on a shoestring, the potential impact at scale could be transformative. “What I believe in this moment is that the field is being remade,” said the INN’s Sue Cross. “It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t dissipate.”
Fifty years ago, the Kerner Commission concluded its report with a call to action, urging that “the painful process of readjustment that is required of the American news media must begin now.” What’s demanded, the commission continued, is “fair and courageous journalism—commitment and coverage that are worthy of one of the crucial domestic stories in America’s history.” Traditional media outlets have so far failed to live up to that charge, but the new wave of media reformers—led by and for people of color—could be the ones who make a truly equitable media a reality.