How We Got Here and How We Get Out of Here

A lot of what we’re seeing online today is actually a return, full circle, to the way things were when American newspapers began; a mixture of advocacy and investigative in-your-face journalism. There is a long and distinguished history of such newspapers—from the papers that were fiercely loyal to Jefferson or Hamilton, to the abolitionist broadsheets, to the activist newspapers at the turn of the century. As my partner Arianna Huffington says, the mission of journalism has always been “truth-seeking, not striking some fictitious balance between two sides.” And anyway, who can doubt that it’s always been important to give consumers what they want.