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07/25/2016

Journalists, America’s not on the verge of disaster. Let’s stop pretending it is

From Poynter

As a critical reader, it is important to analyze every word in a slogan, such as Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again.” This essay riffs off that last word: Again. That adverb suggests there was a time — somewhere in the past — when America was really great.

So was America great in the 1820s, when slaves were property and women had no vote? How about the 1860s, when more than half a million Americans killed each other in a Civil War? Or the 1890s, when industrialization created a huge chasm between the very rich and very poor, creating tenements of poverty, hunger and disease?

Perhaps we could look back to the Roaring '20s, as long as we overlook the Jim Crow South, lynchings and a generation of law men wearing the hoods of the KKK. Oh the 1930s! The Depression. Those were the days.

My point should be clear: The past was never as good as some people would have you believe. And the present is never as bad.

When there is violence, death, intolerance and paranoia, when the news is filled with tragic stories and bloody images, when citizens on the scene produce dreadful video images that are then broadcast to the world, it is easy enough for journalists to contribute to the myth of the Golden Age.

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