Molly White's Citation Needed - It matters. I care.

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Originally published on June 11, 2025.

I'm Molly White, and you're listening to the audio feed for the citation-needed newsletter. You can see the text version of the newsletter online at citation-needed.news. It matters. I care. This issue was originally published on June 11, 2025. Who cares? It doesn't matter anyway. I've come to expect these words in my social media replies to my own work, and elsewhere in response to other journalists doing critical reporting on the abuse of the Trump regime? Explain the clear corruption exemplified by Donald Trump's growing list of

cryptocurrency businesses? Nobody cares. Exposed the pseudonymous individuals spending millions of dollars to buy influence with the president via his personal meme coin. It doesn't matter. He's never going to face consequences. Document apparently illegal campaign contributions by the largest American cryptocurrency exchange. What does it matter? No one's going to do anything about it. And these are just a few social media responses. They are expressions of a much broader resignation I'm seeing on and offline. That caring is somehow naive, that documenting the truth is pointless, that hope is for fools. Let me be clear. It fucking matters. Truth matters. Documentation matters. Fighting corruption matters. That accountability seems out of reach right now doesn't change that. When we internalize the belief that nothing

can change, we stop demanding change. When we accept corruption as normal, we stop fighting it. When we dismiss documentation of wrongdoing as pointless, we give wrongdoers exactly what they want, permission to continue unchecked and with no record of their actions. I understand the despair in these kinds of responses. We've all watched impeachments fail, courts falter, institutions buckle, and politicians repeatedly trade away democracy. for their next campaign check. But giving up on the very idea that truth and morality matter is not just cynicism, it's surrender.

Without a commitment to documenting truth, all that's left is propaganda. And we've already seen this play out in what were once some of the most respected publications. Major news outlets have bowed to Trump rather than defend their reporting. They depict Trump's outright lies as mere misstatements and spin his illegal actions as a few.

controversies. They engage in reflexive both-sidesism, desperately seeking to present balance, even when one side is demonstrably false. They describe attacks on human rights as mere policy differences. They uncritically repeat government statements that plainly don't reflect reality. In so doing, they're not just betraying their fundamental purpose and abandoning their essential role in democracy. They're helping build a world where truth becomes whatever power says it is, and undermining our collective power to build a better world. When journalists abandon truth-telling and readers stop demanding it, we accept things as they are. It leaves no path for things to get better and every opportunity for them to grow worse.

When we throw up our hands and say none of it matters, we're doing the fascists' work for them. They don't need to hide their corruption if they can convince us it's pointless to look. They don't need to silence truth tellers if we've already decided truth is meaningless. So yes, I care. I care desperately. I care because not caring isn't an option. I care because the moment we accept that truth and morality are meaningless is the moment we guarantee they'll never matter again. I care because somebody fucking has to. That's why I keep documenting corruption and abuse, the erosion of norm. and each step away from democracy.

Not because I expect immediate consequences, but because documenting the truth will matter later even if it doesn't seem to matter now. Because caring isn't naive, because documentation isn't pointless, because hope is not for fools. Thanks for listening to this issue of the citation-needed newsletter. If you would like to support my work with a free

or pay-what-you-want subscription to the citation-needed newsletter, or if you would like to receive these issues in your email, go to citation needed.news. If you enjoyed the podcast version of this episode, please consider leaving a rating or review in your podcast player of choice.