Going to be a short newsletter today. Lots of shoveling to do in, ugh, New York City. Pics below.
1. The News
On Saturday I complained that the national media seems to have moved on from Minnesota, leaving the misimpression that the federal government’s occupation there has concluded.
Today I want to explain why the media has failed. Because the problem isn’t moral; it’s logistical and systemic.
First, understand that when we say “the media” in this context, we’re talking about major institutions: the New York Times and large print orgs, wire services, broadcast TV news divisions, cable news networks, local print and broadcast in Minnesota, and mid-major independent media. This is a vast number of outlets—but not an infinite number.
And their output is also not infinite.
If you are CNN, you have perhaps seven program blocks per hour. Each of these blocks can support a few minutes’ worth of coverage. There is a maximum number of news segments you can air each day. If you are the New York Times you can fit maybe six stories on your front page (or above the fold on your homepage).
We do not need to do a hand-count of the total number of stories that can be produced each day by “the media”—we just need to understand that there is an upper limit on both the ability to produce stories and the capacity to publish and surface them.
Understood? Good. So let’s talk about the news environment this week.
The Trump regime is preparing to attack Iran again. Military preparations are underway for what could be a major engagement. Here is the New York Times:
President Trump has told advisers that if diplomacy or any initial targeted U.S. attack does not lead Iran to give in to his demands that it give up its nuclear program, he will consider a much bigger attack in coming months intended to drive that country’s leaders from power, people briefed on internal administration deliberations said.
Since Trump’s official position since last June has been that the Iranian nuclear program had been “completely and totally obliterated,” it is not possible for Iran to “give up” a nuclear program, is it? Trump has established an impossible precondition so that he has a justification to . . . do something in Iran.
What is that something? Is it decapitation, like Venezuela? If so, who will be playing the part of Delcy Rodríguez as the new, Trump-approved head of Iran? Or is it regime change, with an entirely new ruling construct?
Who knows.
Tomorrow Trump will give his State of the Union address and there will be news of some sort in it.
And then there’s the shifting tariff regime which might be 10 percent, or 15 percent, or eleventy-gazillion percent. These new tariffs might last for 150 days. They might be replaced—or supplemented—by “licensing” fees, which will themselves be challenged in courts. The trade “deals” Trump had struck following his Liberation Day tariffs will be challenged, or renegotiated, or dumped. Global trade is headed toward chaos-induced paralysis, again.
All of which is to say that Trump’s “flood the zone with shit” strategy is more sophisticated than it sounds. It reflects a deep understanding of a fundamental weakness.
When the government is run by normal politicians who are committed to the liberal democratic order, the Fourth Estate is a powerful mechanism for enforcing accountability. That’s because breaches in the law, or the liberal democratic order, are rare and can be focused on at length.
But we now see that when the regime is criminal and