> What a softball article. It's mind blowing to me (living outside US) how journalism in the US is soft with people in power. Major US news orgs have a long an

> What a softball article. It's mind blowing to me (living outside US) how journalism in the US is soft with people in power. Major US news orgs have a long and mostly unbroken history of deference to federal powers. If a head of a federal LEO, intelligence or related agency makes a significant announcement, the press will dutifully repeat the assertions without any analysis or attempt to vet the info. During the 2010s we'd get claims like Cyber Pearl Harbor or FBI's Going Dark w/ 7k unlockable phones. Never with evidence. And it was never questioned. Officials who had been eventually factchecked (once here, once there) by qualified, credible people were found (each time) have been untrue (Keith Alexander). With a zero percent credibility rating, they were still never doubted. Local news orgs do the same for most Gov and corp entities. If Local Police say "..." it will be faithfully presented as if the statement is a verified fact - except no verification is done, usually ever. Our current admin rattles off stuff that is impossible to believe. Finally the US press wonders if it's true. Huzzah for progress, I guess.