A decade ago, when someone else was president of the United States, when there was no covid-19, when George Floyd was alive, the writer Rebecca Solnit gave an interview to The Believer magazine. It was not a presidential election year. âWe tend to think of politics as a tiny fenced-off arena of unpleasantness, which most Americans avoidâexcept for the horse race of a primary season or fun moral questions often centered in irrelevant individual crimes and acts,â she said. âBut politics is pervasive. Everything is political and the choice to be âapoliticalâ is usually just an endorsement of the status quo and the unexamined life.â
When we look around now, itâs impossible not to see politics everywhere. Campaign politics swerve into public health politics; racial politics underlie everything. Journalists have sometimes pictured themselves standing outside of it all, pencils up, observing the news as it flashes by. But coverage is political, tooâand to say otherwise is a failure to appreciate the nature of the work. That has always been so. But now more than everâgiven the confluence of events in the spring of 2020âit is a reality that is impossible to deny.
In March, before a press briefing, a White House doctor takes journalistsâ temperatures. Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images
In May, Sen. Charles Schumer talks to mask-clad reporters at the Capitol. They try to keep their distance. Reuters / Leah Millis
In April, following a meeting of the coronavirus task force, President Trump addresses reporters in the briefing room. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
In March, aiming to clinch the Democratic Partyâs nomination for president, Joe Biden appears in his first virtual town hall. Held over Zoom and Facebook Live, the event is plagued by technical difficulty. At one point, Biden wanders off-screen. Screenshots
Candace Valenzuela, a Democratic congressional candidate from the suburbs of Dallas, calls in from the makeshift campaign office in her bathroom while caring for her two young sons. Andy Baldwin
While working from home, Stephanie Ruhle, an MSNBC anchor and senior business correspondent for NBC News, delivers a live report with her eleven-year-old son hidden just off camera. Courtesy Stephanie Ruhle
While reporting from Minneapolisâwhere protests have broken out over the killing of George Floyd by a white police officerâOmar Jimenez, a CNN correspondent, is arrested live on air. CNN
In May, while covering demonstrations near the Colorado statehouse, Hyoung Chang, a photographer for the Denver Post, is struck by a police projectile; his badge is damaged. Hyoung Chang
