Americans of different races, creeds, generations, religions, geography, and political affiliation have always differed in their perceptions of politics and culture. But having a baseline set of shared facts turns out to be important. Political parties deliberately skew those facts for their own purposes. However, when journalists repeat those partisan narratives word for word or, worse, amplify them they are interfering with the prime directive.
Interactive WaPo story tests font legibility. AI will not disrupt books. “Possibilities of Paper” is an art installation featuring creative uses of paper. A tribute to the Zenith Space Command remote control. There is such a thing as “LiFi,” light-based wireless communication. VW is reintroducing its “magic bus” and it’s electric. Car owners are frustrated by the proliferation of technology in cars. Dang, we missed the National Week of Injection Molding. The James Webb Space Telescope spots a giant cosmic question mark. Why not participate in the annual Sheep to Shawl Competition? In “dip hop,” rappers lay down rhymes in sign language. Krispy Kreme has filled doughnuts with M&Ms, for some reason. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.
This essay and the series it inaugurates, The 1735 Project, is not about the failings of the two dominant political parties. Rather, it will focus on the media’s role in the degradation of U.S. politics and America’s national discourse. This endeavor, which will consist of numerous reported essays, is about the abdication of a responsibility that the press willingly often courageously shouldered throughout the 20th century.
Come with me in your mind’s eye to New York City in 1735. John Peter Zenger, editor and printer of New York Weekly Journal, was experiencing a grim, grueling experience. He had been arrested and incarcerated for seditious libel against Gov. William Cosby, a serious criminal offense during this colonial time. The law of libel .