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Setting aside the erosion of Americans’ trust in their democracy (which is clearly happening, Republican voters in PA are telling us they don’t trust the results), the implications of this story scare me greatly on a personal level as a political editor 1/ https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-republicans-false-election-claims-20201111.html
Here we have top Pennsylvania Republicans saying things about the election that are plainly false. Not “unsubstantiated” or “offered without evidence,” but just false. 2/
It matters. One Republican member of the @PhillyInquirer Election Roundtable said tonight: “I am Pennsylvania born and bred. My family has been here more than 300 years, but now I have lost confidence in the system.” 3/
Republicans and the conservative ecosystem have successfully convinced their voters — even our Roundtable voters we built some trust with — that the fact-based media is on on some steal. 4/
But as we note in the story, they’re undermining the validity of the very same election in which, other than the presidential race, they basically ran the table! They won almost everywhere in the election they say was rigged. 5/
And as @mmurraypolitics noted, there’s nothing new about what’s going here. Biden has triple the lead in key states Trump had over Clinton. She conceded, & whatever talk of Russia there was, there was no questioning the actual vote tally 6/ https://twitter.com/mmurraypolitics/status/1326159839941287936
The only thing that’s new is the president’s refusal to accept that reality, and his party’s cooperation in that corrosive move. So where does this leave me as a political editor? 7/
Well, I’ve got reporters calling the sky blue in stories like this one. And now calling the sky blue is going to be dismissed as partisan or biased 8/ https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-republicans-false-election-claims-20201111.html
What then? We can’t not call the sky blue. So Republicans will dismiss us as biased, they’ll be more hesitant to talk to us, it’ll be harder for us to make the good-faith efforts we always make to reflect everyone’s views, so our coverage won’t reflect those views as well… 9/
And around and around we’ll go in that vicious cycle. I don’t know how it ends. And I know my angst as a political editor is hardly the most important thing in the world right now.
But it still sucks.
10/10
But it still sucks.
10/10
