"Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change"
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Journalism, in Vachss's telling, isn’t a nice-to-have civic accessory; it’s the circulatory system that keeps democracy from going necrotic. The line is intentionally muscular, almost impatient with the softer clichés about “an informed public.” “Maintains” is the key verb: democracy isn’t a stable achievement, it’s a machine that corrodes unless someone keeps it running, audits the parts, and calls out the smoke. That framing carries a warning about entropy - about what happens when power goes unscrutinized and citizens are left with slogans instead of facts.
The second sentence sharpens the stake by refusing neutrality. Calling journalism “the force for progressive social change” is less a partisan cheer than a thesis about how information actually moves history: exposure precedes accountability; documentation precedes reform. Vachss, known for writing about predators and institutional failure, is channeling a worldview in which systems protect themselves by default. Journalism becomes the counterweight, not because reporters are saints, but because their work can break the spell of normalcy around abuse, corruption, and neglect.
There’s subtext, too, about what counts as journalism. Not content, not vibe, not outrage-as-performance, but verification, persistence, and a willingness to antagonize the comfortable. In an era of collapsing local newsrooms and algorithmic attention traps, Vachss’s claim reads like both praise and ultimatum: starve journalism and you don’t just lose stories - you lose the infrastructure that makes self-government real.
The second sentence sharpens the stake by refusing neutrality. Calling journalism “the force for progressive social change” is less a partisan cheer than a thesis about how information actually moves history: exposure precedes accountability; documentation precedes reform. Vachss, known for writing about predators and institutional failure, is channeling a worldview in which systems protect themselves by default. Journalism becomes the counterweight, not because reporters are saints, but because their work can break the spell of normalcy around abuse, corruption, and neglect.
There’s subtext, too, about what counts as journalism. Not content, not vibe, not outrage-as-performance, but verification, persistence, and a willingness to antagonize the comfortable. In an era of collapsing local newsrooms and algorithmic attention traps, Vachss’s claim reads like both praise and ultimatum: starve journalism and you don’t just lose stories - you lose the infrastructure that makes self-government real.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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