rises to 66% and for trump voters, 98%. these are mostly self-inflicted wounds. sensationalism and serious mistakes have decimated public trust in the press especially on the right. now, for some pokes in this hyperpolarized era, threat to democracy may be a pox city for i just don t like the media or i think they re ooh nice to the other side. and the trump-style press-bashing has taken its toll. i m not going to sugar coat it, we have lost our role as a fair umpire of political disputes. the gaps want to throw us off the field. even the fact checkers believe it s partisan. i hate that so many americans now view my profession as a threat to them can crass, but i can t say i m shocked. i m howard kurtz, and this is mediabuzz. howard: one sign just over two to weeks before the midterms that the election is moving in the republicans direction is that even liberal pundits and news outlets are conceding the point. the party of woke scolds and gender studies grads knockou
makes it all the more concerning when you look at how many of trump s pardons carried the stink of political patronage and best in corrupt self-interest at worst. according to pew research center over the course of his four years in office trump only granted 237 acts of clemency. that s the third lowest number of pardons for any president in history. only the two president bush is pardoned fewer people. it would seem that trump was extremely selective about who he pardoned. still some of his pardons were widely praised. like alice johnson in 2020 who was serving life in prison for a nonviolent drug conviction. he posthumously pardoned the historical figure season being anthony, arrested for voting illegally. in 1870 to inject johnson the first black heavyweight boxing champ who is subject to a racist conviction in 1913 for transporting a white woman across state lines. but he also pardoned a robes gallery of political figures including many of his own associates. some of whom
submerging homes and roads, in the capital seoul. at least eight people have died. the south korean president has called an emergency meeting now on bbc news, it s hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. according to research in the us and the uk, roughly one in 100 people is transgender. but the fact that the debate about transgender rights has become a political and even health care battleground isn t driven so much by the numbers, but more by conflicting ideologies. my guest today has a prominent voice in that debate. shon faye is trans, a writer and a former lawyer. is all this attention on issues of sex, gender and identity making it easier to be trans, or not? shon faye, welcome to hardtalk. pleasure to be here. thank you for having me. it s great to have you here. i also have a copy of your book, the transgender issue, which you wrote. published last year. it s described on the cover as a landmark bestseller. it has done well. and in the
shon faye is trans, a writer and a former lawyer. is all this attention on issues of sex, gender and identity making it easier to be trans, or not? shon faye, welcome to hardtalk. pleasure to be here. thank you for having me. it s great to have you here. i also have a copy of your book, the transgender issue, which you wrote. published last year. it s described on the cover as a landmark bestseller. it has done well. and in the intervening months since you published it, the transgender story, as we put it, the issues around transgender rights has consistently been prominent in the political debate. would it be right to assume that you are delighted those issues are so prominent? shon laughs er, ithink. in one way, i feel vindicated. the argument that i make in the book, essentially, is that there has been an explosion in discussion of transgender people across all forms of media and in politics. but what i argue in the book is that trans people are often not at the centre of
playing out before our eyes taking us to another scary place over the past fort night. a criminal investigation into donald trump s handling of classified information looming over the country and both major political parties with an even more significant specter casting a long, shadow in sharp relief. the very real possibility that a former president of the united states could soon be indicted for violating the espionage act or other federal statutes. it is extremely volatile and if donald trump is indeed indicted although that remains a big if, for the moment and we ll move beyond volatility and into more territory that s explosive into where there is a dramatic increase into more political violence than we ve seen already in our republic. in just the last two weeks we ve seen threats against the fbi and law enforcement surging. a pennsylvania man was arrested last week for threatening to kill agents of the federal bureau of investigation and a man armed with a semiautomat