Ken McDouall

“Reporter Mary Louise Kelly went on the air to explain why she chose not to use the word in her story on Trump’s post-inauguration appearance at the CIA headquarters. She said that she checked the definition in the Oxford English Dictionary. “A false statement made with intent to deceive,” she said. “Intent being the key word there. Without the ability to peer into Donald Trump’s head, I can’t tell you what his intent was. I can tell you what he said and how that squares, or doesn’t, with facts.”
― Masha Gessen, Surviving Autocracy

“The pedantic insistence on only ever reporting empirically proven facts, and staying away from facts for which only logical, intellectual evidence can be summoned, creates the blurry style of American journalism. By using noncommittal statements, the blurry style in effect aids the Trumpian project of neutralizing the most important of media rights—the public’s right to know. Anodyne headlines and noncommittal writing become an automatic way of normalizing Trump, to be sure, but also a way of reassuring journalists and editors that they can continue to work in the way they were taught.”
― Masha Gessen, Surviving Autocracy

“But the people walking through Mexico were not an army or a hurricane. They were not even planning to cross the border illegally. International law guaranteed their right to seek asylum. The United States had an obligation to consider their claims. Trump did not have a moral or legal leg to stand on when he talked about deterring the asylum seekers, much less when he promised to send the military to stop them. But most of the media, across the political spectrum, were now standing right there with him. They might have been uncomfortable with some of the language that Trump used in discussing immigration, but he had still succeeded in shifting their frame.”
― Masha Gessen, Surviving Autocracy

“What I have is beautiful music inspired by struggle and fierce love. What he got ain’t nothing but hateful noise. Not a hint of soul to it.”
― P. Djèlí Clark, Ring Shout