For the new issue of @TheProspect, I sat with @RepMarieNewman, @RepCori, @RepBowman, and @RepMondaire to talk strategies/priorities for the next two years, how and where they plan to wield power. If you're into these left strategy debates, this is for you.

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us today. I've got quite a lot to cover in my opening remarks today so please bear with me, but it's all by way of important and, I hope, useful update to you."

NS: "First of all, to today's statistics. The total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 2,649."

NS: "That is 11.3% of the total number of tests carried out, and the total number of confirmed cases is now 143,715."

NS: "660 of the new cases are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 389 in Lanarkshire, 357 in Lothian and 302 in Tayside. The remaining cases are across 9 other health board areas."

NS: "I can also confirm that 1,467 people are currently in hospital. That is an increase of 83 from yesterday."

A story ...

In 1994, I was teaching U.S. history and American government at Oak Ridge HS in El Dorado Hills, California.

I had three bright students who were my TAs. The 20th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation was a few months away. I decided to have ... 1/

my students -- Sherilyn Peek, Aaron Leahy and Nicole Poimiroo -- take on an extra project. They contacted dozens of people who were in some way involved with the Watergate saga. Politicians, lawyers, political appointees, journalists and others. 2/

They spent weeks, before the internet existed, tracking down addresses. Then they sent a short letter that asked the recipients to respond to one question: What should America learn from Watergate?

Before long, responses started to show up in my mailbox at school. 3/

Archibald Cox replied, and I'm especially struck by this sentence: "...we should be reminded of the corrupt influence of great power, especially when the power is in the hands of someone who is willing to resort to any tactics, however wrong, to retain and increase his power."4/

Richard Kleindienst wrote his response by hand ... "Our Constitution worked! The federal judiciary worked. The Congress and a free press worked. That our Constitution works is the magic of America." 5/

A thread on... where we are as Americans.

Since I was a kid, I've been a 'news junkie'. Read both local newspapers every day, all the newsmagazines, and watched every local & national newscast. I even wrote & voiced a national financial news broadcast for several years.

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Even after I left broadcasting, I continued to consume all the news within reach. Religiously watching all the Sunday shows, writing letters to the editor, and plowing into Social Media- when it first started! I even watched all the late-nite comics for their witty snark.

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Now, for the first time in my life, I don't. I keep up with events, and still read voraciously, but I just can't watch or read the majority of the corporate news. Because most of it ISN'T news anymore, but a sad self-parody akin to the 1976 Movie 'Network'.

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Paddy Chayefsky wrote a scathing satire of a news network so consumed with ratings that it eschewed journalistic ethics in favor of sensationalism and pushing narrow corporate and political interests. That sadly, is no longer parody.

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The line between 'hard news' and opinion was erased at most outlets long ago. We no longer talk of 'objectivity' or hearing both sides'. People refer to most (formerly) 'hard news' outlets by their ideological slant, and the agenda they push.

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