Talking Points Memo

In today's Morning Memo, David Kurtz outlines the struggle of covering the Texas border shenanigans:

And so the challenge of covering it is how to treat it like a stunt, while noting the substantive risks, even if remote, and at the same time not unduly alarm the public in the exact same way that the stunt is intended to do. I'm not complaining. There are much harder jobs than this one. But it's these kinds of performative threats – and their symbolic and real power – that mark the Trump era and generate often subpar coverage of what's really happening."

He then mentions the coverage TPM's provided about this specific "performative threat":

A sampling of Josh Kovensky's early coverage shows how we balanced it before it became a national story:

March 24, 2023: Texas Legislators Propose Takeover Of Federal Immigration Enforcement

April 13, 2023: Texas Bill Would Make Federal Law 'Inoperative' In The State To 'Repel' Migrants

April 16, 2023: 'Invasion': Texas GOP Struggles Over What Crisis To Manufacture At Border

April 19, 2022: ll Take The Border Hostage Again

May 16, 2023: Texas Moves One Step Closer To Asking SCOTUS To Rewrite National Immigration Law

July 24, 2023: Abbott: We Need Rio Grande Buoys To Protect From Invasion
 

The important thing for our purposes is not any one of these specific stories, nor is it the Morning Memo article itself: What is important is the intellectual and professional rigor with TPM covers the news, and the way in which TPM is often months ahead of other outlets in terms of identifying something concerning and devoting the appropriate tone and coverage. 

This is the value of independent media that is not beholden to anyone but their readers and their own values. In these times, unfortunately, due to a variety of factors, news organizations like TPM are becoming more scarce. As we've said before, unserious people often require serious, non-hysterical scrutiny and that, my friends, is TPM's bread and butter.