Writing a news organization’s ethics policy in the 2020s is hard. A reporter’s voice used to be heard only after being filtered by editors; now it yammers across Twitter 24/7. An entire troll subculture stands ready to wield any misstep as a weapon against the “mainstream media.” And by pushing previously unthinkable ideas into the mainstream, Donald Trump and his movement transformed what had often been narrow political debates into seemingly existential arguments over democracy or the very nature of America.
