Read that and weep.

That poll result, and we can only hope it is not accurate, is perhaps the saddest moment in this tragic administration’s brief and terrible history. An independent source of credible information may be the single indispensable foundation stone of a democracy. Trump has acted from the beginning to destroy it. I’m not even going to engage the substance of the poll, other than to say that it is not only the Big Lie but also the most Dangerous Lie.

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I can tell you, for what it’s worth, that in the decades I’ve been working in the so-called mainstream media, that fabricating facts is the worst of the cardinal sins in the endeavor. There are faults aplenty in news organizations, but this is not one of them. It is so completely the opposite of Trump’s claims that it is impossible to dignify.

It is a dangerous charge beyond description, and Trump will stand damned before history for making it. It is undisguised cheerleading for the destruction of independent media in the United States. He has set in motion a rot, that if not reversed, will end our democracy and replace independent information with nothing but propaganda. We are functionally already part of the way there. What is even the point of a news organization running public fact-checking if the entire organization’s work is regarded as a lie? There is no solid ground remaining to operate from.

If the public loses confidence in actual sources of true information, what then? Then we are left with nothing but assertions, and he who has the biggest microphone or Twitter account wins the war of assertions. Without fact-based understanding, and the administration’s assault on this is comprehensive, there is no basis for public debate, and hence no basis for public decision-making. This is a tragedy beyond the words that are losing their meaning. And it is coming directly from the office of what was once known as the leader of the free world.