Good Political Writing

For possibly obvious reasons, I’ve been as fixated on the way the media has handled the late GOP/Trump era as I am with the era itself. Politics entered this period in the 1990s, demonstrating more nimbleness than the media, which *still* hasn’t adapted. In a time when the parties have an asymmetric commitment to the truth, “objective” journalism has to be something other than stenography. Older reporters (and even more, editors) have failed on this score, and end up laundering lies. 

Of course, journalism should be about presenting fact, not balance, and reporters’ commitment should be to their readers, not their subjects. Younger reporters, born and raised in an era when a pol will gleefully lie and expect the lie to be smuggled as fact into news stories, are much more equipped to handle it. One of the best is New York Magazine’s 26-year-old Olivia Nuzzi. Here’s a stellar example of how you do it. This is a profile of Rudy Giuliani.

“As we sped uptown, he spoke in monologue about the scandal he co-created, weaving one made-up talking point into another and another. He said former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, whom he calls Santa Maria Yovanovitch, is ‘controlled’ by George Soros. ‘He put all four ambassadors there. And he’s employing the FBI agents.’ I told him he sounded crazy, but he insisted he wasn’t.”

“While attempting to argue that, despite what has been written, ‘I have no business interests in Ukraine,’ he told me about his business interests in Ukraine. ‘I’ve done two business deals in Ukraine. I’ve sought four or five others,’ he said.”

Rather than merely reporting, “Giuliani says he has no dealings in Ukraine,” she reports both his lie and the proof of the lie. No sane reader can argue with the facts. It’s deeply unflattering to the subject, and that may well be the last sit-down Rudy gives her. But it’s also a factual and honest account. The profile is getting a lot of attention, and I hope people look under the hood and see why. It’s great reporting.