Yesterday, four longtime and faithful employees of the federal government were fired SOLELY because they were doing the job they were delegated to do, paying out funds specifically allocated by Congress.
And the funds that were distributed—funds allocated to New York City to help pay for the thousands of migrants bused to the city by Texas governor Abbott—were illegally, removed from the city’s accounts.
Yet today, the media is full of the “win” that the Trump administration had, because a lawsuit challenging the ‘fork in the road’ payout was tossed—not because there wasn’t a problem with what Trump/Musk are doing, but because the harm hasn’t yet happened. Courts are reactive, not anticipatory. The plaintiffs (union) lacked standing because they couldn’t show direct harm to the union, itself. Yet.
In addition, Judge O’Toole also noted he lacked jurisdiction over the case. To support his decision, he referenced a previous court decision written by current SCOTUS Kustice Jackson, that constrains the interaction between union and the federal government, including designating the National Labor Relations Board as the body to hear disputes between union and government.
It is only after the NLRB holds hearings, investigates, and makes a decision can the union then, and only then, challenge the NLRB decision in the DC district court. Because this lawsuit fell outside this process, Judge O’Toole lacked jurisdiction over the case.
This isn’t a win based on whether what Musk is doing is legal or not. This is one avenue to stop Musk closed while others are still open. In addition, real harm is now occurring with the firings of the four employees for doing their Congressionally mandated job. Real harm is occurring with the firings at the CFPB and USAID. And real harm will also happen once other federal employees with federals protections are fired—not for cause, but because Trump/Musk are trying to kill entire federal departments using attrition.
But none of what I just mentioned easily falls into a single social media post does it? There is no easily defined impact to the citizen sitting at home glancing through the headlines, or reading the chyrons scrolling across the bottom of their TV.
Clickbait.
There is a level of wonkiness required for understanding how the federal government works, as well as how it fits within our system of checks and balances. It’s not easy explaining how today’s fired employee means that the price of corn will go up and you’ll pay more in the store next year, because you have to walk through much of the guts of federal activity to get from point A to point Z. And this isn’t a sexy walk.
On the one hand, Trump and Musk have no problem with lying about their actions, or lying about the results because they know the only thing that matters is what appears in headlines or fits within an X-witter twip. Whatever you may think of these two men, they are masters at manipulating the press.
On the other hand, those of us fighting Trump/Musk to salvage as much of our government as we can, must take time to explain why the actions Trump/Musk are taking are both illegal and harmful—using concepts and referencing laws that can be both obscure and complex, all to a nation of folks who seemingly have a strongly adverse reaction to civics.
Not clickbait.
So, while the larger news organizations follow whatever crumbs dropped by Trump/Musk, smaller news organizations and people on the street, like you and me, are going to have to pick up the slack. We’re the news now.
No matter how big or small our audiences, we have to write about what’s happening in our current administration. Wonky? Sure. Complex? OK. Not Pulitzer Prise winning? Well, I wouldn’t count out Wired’s coverage of what’s happening to boots on the ground in the federal government, but yeah, no gold star for the rest of us.
And whether you write or not, it’s up to all of us to ensure that the spotlight hits on what needs to be covered—not on the sparkly, eye-catching clickbait that comes out at both the White House and X-witter.
It’s simple. Make noise. Make a lot of noise. Continue making noise.
And make sure folks hear it.