Politico founding editor John Harris argues that criticism from the right and left about matters of bias, objectivity and detachment miss the point, that “the classic critique from the right about bias and the new critique from the left about false equivalency often strike me as frivolous.” “The point is,” writes Harris, “that the power of journalism comes from the primacy of reporting — from telling their audiences things that people in power would prefer they not know. By this standard, it seems to me, that journalists shaped by the values and mindset of traditional journalism still demonstrate a lot of power — more power than practitioners of the new and more avowedly ideological brand of journalism.” (Politico, September 2, 2022)
“We favor disclosure over secrecy, honesty over propaganda, accountability and public interest over devil-take-the-hindmost, democracy over authoritarianism,” says Harris. In that spirit, Ryan Goodman and Clara Apt, Just Security, September 29, 2022, presented a comprehensive account of former President Donald Trump’s dealings with government records. The editors Goodman and Apt used court documents, media reports, and National Archives letters in compiling the account. They draw no conclusions, just present the facts.