August 25, 2019

Can We Please Ignore Donald Trump Occasionally?

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Last week Donald Trump talked about buying Greenland. Within a day or two the news media was full of stories asking “Can America really buy Greenland?”

Today Trump mused about using nuclear weapons to break up hurricanes. I suppose this means that tomorrow we’ll be buried under earnest pieces asking “Are nukes the answer to hurricanes?”

I sympathize with news organizations over this stuff. I mean, the guy is president of the United States, so when he says stuff people want to know more about it. Still, I wonder if we really need to scurry around producing thumbsuckers—complete with expert interviews!—explaining things like Greenland’s territorial status and the physics of hurricanes? Just because Trump says something doesn’t mean it’s automatically a topic for deep investigation.

Anyway, the answers are (a) no and (b) no. If you really need more, Wikipedia is your friend.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

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