Hard to get any less abstract than his response.

My response, before immediately asking the question again

I'd challenge the notion of "radically transparent" and use the Fed Governor Lisa Cook mortgate scandal as an example of alleged radical transparency actively obscuring the truth.

I stopped after “radically transparent”.

What does it even say???

Ben didn't really answer, did he?

I think Steve Bannon put it more succinctly when he called it "flooding the zone". The "radically transparent" bit could refer to Project 2025 telegraphing their intentions I suppose... there's nothing happening that they didn't tell us they'd do. People were just too complacent to notice.

Seemed like a yes/no question to me. 🤷‍♂️

Which in simple terms means that yes since the institutions that make a democracy are under attack, it follows that our democracy is in danger. There I fixed it.

Gutless answer.

Yes Kai feckless. But more importantly he epitomizes how journalism and the major media outlets, print and electronic, have failed us.

I don't know whether it makes me feel alarmed or condescended to.

You made a typo. “obsequious access whore” There. Fixed.

That was total non answer. His college professor would have given him a B for language and a D not for answering the question.

Agree, but I think the B for language is generous.

He gets a B because he’s a legacy!😉😁

Those are certainly words

Rhymes with turds.

What Dafuq was that?

What does that even mean?

Right?

I don't know about that. I read Smith's reply and thought, "What the feck?"

This is the kind of answer you give when the truth would get you audited, fired, deported and/or curbstomped.

Riiight, Riiight. So, "decentralized information environment" isn't an abstract term but "democracy under threat" is.

I suspect some of the institutions he’s referring to are spelled out by statute and constitution and pretty fundamental to the functioning of our democracy. Seems to include congress and courts. But as long as we hold elections of some type the somnolent can call it a democracy.

This is how we end up in a dictatorship instead of fighting it.

That answer is a definite red-pen special

Translated into common speech: “from where I sit, the question is can our culture fuckin’ survive this.”

I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. 😂

Apparently, he didn't want to answer.

Jfc, there's nothing "abstract" about a demonstrably corrupt court gutting voting rts, protecting a corrupt pres who btw placed political minders in news orgs, extorting universities, gerrymandering by state-level minions, troops in the streets.... the dismantling of US democracy is quite concrete.

"Oh, fuck, yeah" was sitting RIGHT THERE.

What is it with these guys and this word salad that they spew? We stand a better chance of getting "Hamlet" from 1000 monkeys on typewriters than these asswipes making sense answering a simple question.

Its a simple yes or no and his inability to speak the truth speaks volumes

Every single one of your NPR colleagues would answer in this same feckless way. The 4th estate is broken.

Word salad.

It's a word salad

So transparency seems to be a problem? Our institutions can't function if we can see the crimes being committed?

If the answer isn't "No.", we have a problem.

Total cop out. Trust in governmental institutions operating equally and rationally to the best extent possible under the rule of law and norms is the foundation of a democratic society. Anything else is chaos.

There is just so much money and career in being one of conservative political media’s talking head boosters, that a certain amount of people will say literally ANYTHING.

So for Semafor/East Coast ‘Deep Thinker’ — this is all some sort of hypothetical question in a Philosophy 101 course. GTFO

“Okay, but I asked a yes/no question.” Too snarky?

Feckless? It was downright feces.

I would say, "disingenuous." "Feckless" isn't strong enough.

What the fuck was that?

Not the press we had during the Nixon years. Total lack of a spine.

How can you say it’s not. Government derives its power and purpose from serving the people. It no longer does. Leaders do not believe in the rule of law, nor its application without favor to all. And our cultural institutions, which are monuments to a shared history, are decimated. What’s left?

Ben should not have had Grok write his answer.

Feckless!

That’s not even word salad. It’s words after they’ve been poured into a blender.

I don't see any answer.

Darcy’s answer sounds, how should we put this, ABSTRACT and utterly bloodless, like he is watching from a distance and it doesn’t much matter to him what is destroyed (or whom).

That answer is completely without fecks.

How do you ignore: - Jan6th attack - Supreme Court granting sweeping powers to POTUS - The Big Lie - Fox News and Newsmax lawsuits based on Big Lie - Gerrymandering madness - Troops in the streets The list goes on but this guy has clearly checked out of democracy and maybe society in general.

intentionally obtuse answer to a well-aimed question

Obsequious at best.

What the hell does that even mean?

Feckless or gibberish?

so lame