Living through authoritarianism is a much richer and more complex experience than I expected. Naively, I’d assumed that a dictator just sent some thugs to shut down the newspapers, built his own propaganda machine and forced through laws punishing ‘unpatriotic’ speech. A few brave Alexei Navalny-like figures would publish the truth regardless, and someone would see their work in 50 years and make an independent movie about them.
But it turns out that, as soon as the scent of fascism is in the air, most journalists surrender without even being asked. Last year, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times both pulled presidential endorsements just in case Trump won. And on Saturday, the White House Correspondents’ Association yanked Amber Ruffin from her gig hosting their annual dinner on April 26—because she said some mean things on The Daily Beast Podcast.
The White House Correspondents’ Association was once a fearless organization that decided who sat where at press conferences and ran the newsroom located right inside the White House. I know how brave they were because they let me follow Bill Clinton on Air Force One for three days and take notes for the newsmagazine pool back when I was 27 and wrote Q&As with Yasmine Bleth. (They also let me hang out for a day to research a network sitcom pilot.)
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