“This is a really new but also very crucial beat that we are covering at the AP,” Pace told CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter on “Reliable Sources” Sunday.
“The challenge that a lot of news organizations are facing when it comes to covering democracy is that, yes, this is of course a national issue, a macro issue, but it’s playing out all across the country in very local ways,” Pace said. “And if you think about what happened in New Mexico potentially playing out across the country in November, in the midterm elections, or in a general election in 2024, I think it certainly could provide enough fodder to keep a democracy editor and a democracy team quite busy.”
“We have an extremist wing, an extremist element, within the conservative movement that is trying to basically take over the Republican party,” HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton told Stelter. “The press, American people, all of us, anyone who’s pro-Democracy, pro-free press, pro-equality, this is what we’re up against because these are the things these people do not want.”
“That’s why it’s so important for the press to keep banging the drum,” Belton added. “This is not the time to be shy, this is not the time to demure away from something, this is not the time to just ‘both sides’ something to death. There is no both sides to whether or not you’re pro-democracy and pro-free press.”
