A recommendation for the media

By following only current events, often with a time limit of the day or the last month, the news media has unwittingly committed a great fraud in public disinformation. Often, scandals are years in the making, the pieces of which may be strewn about the back pages of news sources. The public needs to be reminded again and again of breaches of law and the antidemocratic actions of our government. My recommendation: expand your "memory base" and report relevant past events as though they are still relevant (which they often are). Look to the broad pattern of events, not just the events of the day. Show that you can digest information, not just spew it out. Analyze the data. These techniques are the tried and true methods of historians and scholars everywhere and yet they are almost entirely neglected by the news media. Focusing laserlike on the current events, the American public fails to connect the dots, to see the larger pattern, and to make informed decisions and judgments about issues that may still be relevant. The public needs to know that there is more than just facts (i.e., "the news") and opinion (i.e., "the op-ed page"), but there is something called the reasoned facts--that is, the conclusions which facts coupled with basic principles of public reason require.