every journalist who, for a single moment, insisted that "emails" were a legit issue in the 2016 campaign should, every single day, think about their culpability in our failed covid-19 response.

the republican party have, at every level of government, governed very badly for my entire adult life. none of this - the death, the chaos, the incompetence - was remotely surprising, and i would like people to be more honest and forthright about that fact.

insofar as there are exceptions (usually at the governor level) they are very clearly exceptions. a lot of good people working in journalism made professional choices to ignore the danger the GOP would put us in, and i would like them to admit the consequences of those choices.

and i'm not even talking about the ones who profit from the horserace. plenty of good reporters treated that story seriously while ignoring or downplaying the scope of the threat the GOP posed to the american people because they decided to give the people what they wanted.

at some point, people across the political spectrum are going to have to take responsibility for their own decisions and their own choices, and now is as good a time as any. trump was fundamentally dangerous, the GOP would obv support him, and everyone fucking knew it.

everything else is irrelevant. clinton's paid speeches, her donors, her advisors, her emails -- all of this shit is irrelevant and anyone who argues otherwise is doing so to avoid taking any responsibility for their own choices.

donald trump and the herd behavior of the republican party were a clear, present and existential threat to the fabric of the united states, and rather than scream that in 100pt font across the front page every day, we were talking about a fucking email server.

this isn't monday morning quarterbacking. this was all as clear as day *at the time*. it was right in front of our noses right from the beginning, and while maybe the average american had trouble making it out, the average journalist knew better.

for a profession that prides itself on taking a clear-eyed, rational look at what's happening and believes it's responsibility to communicate that information responsibly, the entire journalist class failed at their task abominably, at every level, left and right.

and average, everyday americans own a substantial portion of the blame here, too. but americans took these stories seriously because the press - left, right and center - insisted that they were serious and should be taken seriously.