November 2020.

     In The Nation’s final issue before the results desks across electronic media univocally confirmed the reality of The Once and Not Future King’s electoral ouster, Eric Alterman assessed the danger represented by the man’s epic dishonesty and the press’s broad inability to call it what it was.  Mr. Alterman was on the money and an unpublished letter said so.  A perusal of Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent would do the press corps a world of good.

Here’s Eric Alterman’s article:

Eric Alterman, “The Plot Against America,” The Nation, 16-23 November 2020 (www.thenation.com/article/politics/the-plot-against-america/).

Here’s the unpublished letter:

Eric Alterman’s critique of the press’s coverage of the Trump administration was fully on point.  Authoritarian wannabes will vie for Mr. Trump’s mantle and base; they likely will be more strategically and less pathologically mendacious than the departing president and consequently will pose a continuing threat to democratic governance.  Hiding behind the evasion of “only reporting” will neither inform the citizenry nor hold officeholders to account nor ensure the fourth estate’s long-term health.  “Truth will out” only when public exposure of dishonesty and malfeasance is swift and assured.