Quote of the Day: It’s Great Working For Trump! Really!

Kevin Drum

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From Joe Balash, assistant secretary for land and minerals management, speaking to oil exploration companies last month:

One of the things that I have found absolutely thrilling in working for this administration is the president has a knack for keeping the attention of the media and the public focused somewhere else while we do all the work that needs to be done on behalf of the American people.

I dunno. If I were genuinely doing work on behalf of the American people I’d probably want everyone to know about it. On the other hand, if I were working on behalf of the oil exploration industry I’d probably be pretty happy that no one was paying attention to me. So I think we know what Balash is really thrilled about, don’t we?

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Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

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