Kay Wais

Its kind of tragic when you think about it. For all the things this country got right at the beginning, we somehow failed to lock in one critical safeguard. A group whose only job was to investigate government, track where taxpayer money actually goes, expose fraud and corruption, and inform the public so there was a real check on power beyond politicians policing themselves. Imagine that. An entire profession. Dedicated to telling the truth. Asking hard questions. Following the money. Educating citizens. You could even call them journalists. Oh wait. We did. So what happened? Now we are watching a high school graduate, backed by a handful of citizens with no funding, no corporate safety net, and no institutional protection, do the work that multi billion dollar media companies refuse to touch. Those same media companies are too busy selling prescription drugs during commercial breaks and telling us that what we can see with our own eyes is somehow a lie. That should terrify everyone, regardless of politics. When citizens have to become the press because the press abandoned the people, something is deeply broken.