Obviously we play a vital role in a democracy, which cannot survive without our hot takes.
One problem with "journalism" in this country is the people and institutions which do the least of what we think of as "vital journalism" are the most compensated (generally). Even the hot take system rewards people who have basically the same hot take as everybody else. Sure there's a bit of yelling on cable news, but we're all friends in the Green Room. I used to joke "From the [old] New Republic to the Free Republic" with the joke being they aren't very different! But local journalism and investigative journalism (and LOCAL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM) are really the important things that we are increasingly going without. We don't really need a shouty discussion about whether Maggie is being too mean to Trump or vice versa (so sad when Mom and Dad fight). And when I see prominent journalists getting performatively weepy about this stuff, I think about how national outlets regularly rip off local outlets with minimal or no credit. Just re-report the story! NYT SCOOP!!!!
Still this latest series of events (and, again, to some degree it is accelerating the inevitable) is coming for some of the Hot Takers. Clicks don't matter if there are no ads!
(the joke is they came for the hot takers last)
