What Trump and MAGA elites mean by “election integrity”
Various sources are reporting that Trump has just fired all EAC (Election Assistance Commission) commissioners. The EAC is within the larger FEC (Federal Elections Commission). That anti-election integrity move comes on top of Trump previously neutering the entire FEC by blocking appointment of commissioners. That left the FEC without a quorum and thus powerless to much of anything within the scope of its powers.
Without any commissioners to run the FEC, that federal agency is no longer capable of policing corruption and crimes by special interest money buying elections or politicians by any means that might meaningfully influence an election. The killing off of the EAC ends federal assistance for states to run and coordinate free and fair elections.
In the recent authoritarian MAGA USSC Trump v. Slaughter decision, the court gave Trump unlimited power to fire anyone in the executive branch for any or no reason. The firings of the EAC commissioners is fully protected by the new authoritarian power the USSC just gave Trump.
In other words, it is now perfectly legal for Trump to steer the ship of American democracy straight into huge icebergs of tyranny and corruption. MAGA’s goal is obvious. Sink the whole damned American experiment in a poisoned sea of tyranny and corruption by, e.g., subverting elections, starting with the 2026 midterm elections. This is what Trump, MAGA elites and their predecessors have always meant by “election integrity”. Now we have MAGA-style election integrity, whether we want it or not.
The MSM’s worse than crappy reporting
One of the major systemic damages that Trump and MAGA elites and their radical right authoritarian predecessors have targeted is the MSM. Intelligent reporting is mostly gone. It has been replaced by Switzerland-style milquetoast neutrality. Most of the MSM no longer acts as if it gives a s#*t about what happens to us or our democracy, rule of law and civil liberties. The MSM has collapsed into a state almost total structural failure.
How can anyone rationally argue that MSM reporting about Trump and MAGA tyranny, corruption, and democracy-killing is neutral? Easy peasy. Here’s how. The structural failure here is that most MSM outlets are narrating democratic backsliding. The outlets are not sounding a civic alarm anywhere close to the actual risk of tyranny that isolated pockets of fact reporting fail to convey. What’s happening with the gutting of the EAC and related agencies illustrates how the MSM dutifully records the institutional damage, sometimes calling it “extraordinary”, gasp! 
, but they do not come close to treating it as the critical constitutional or democracy emergency it actually is. What Trump and MAGA elites are doing is not extraordinary. It is catastrophic! That’s far beyond the MSM’s milquetoast extraordinary.
Why is MSM reporting neutral? There are multiple reasons. One is that political reporters are trained into “balance,” sourcing from both parties and avoiding explicit normative claims. Even when one actor is clearly attacking democracy or elections, and degrading rule‑of‑law institutions, the default MSM frame is “ this is just a controversial move,” not “this is authoritarian tyranny attacking democracy and elections”. That is a huge problem. In my opinion it’s a major source of MSM failure.
Also, there is some fear/threat-inspired CSI syndrome (complicity, stupidity, incompetence) going on. Some reporters, opinionators and editors really do believe they are doing a good job by reporting facts but stopping short of connecting MAGA’s tyranny and corruption fact dots. Some are quietly or openly complicit. The dots are scattered all over the entire freaking MSM ecosystem. Connecting them is what Trump and MAGA elites hate and oppose. It takes a lot of effort to do that. Apparently, Trump and MAGA elites have threatened or scared the MSM’s dot-connecting job into almost complete oblivion.
And of course, there’s money and the profit motive. MSM outlets cannot survive without sufficient revenue. Trump and MAGA elites know that and apply pressure, in addition to pressure from advertisers. Trump has retaliated through denying access, regulatory threats, and public vilification. That is intentional. Threats and vilification put pressure on MSM self‑censorship. It forces the MSM to hedge in how far to go, if any at all, beyond the bare descriptive fact minimums. Collectively, the extremely powerful, always present profit motive and MAGA threats are always there pressuring to kill off the MSM’s dot-connecting duty. In other words, there are powerful incentives for the MSM to not do its damned job properly. So, it doesn’t. This is like falling off a log — MSM failure is not rocket science, it’s capitalism.
The gigantic gap between MSM’s neutral descriptions of MAGA’s ghastly democratic and rule of law damage coupled with the its lack of urgent alarm is what a person can call “neutrality”. As discussed here, such an assessment is opinion based on (1) the totality of the facts and truths I am aware of, and (2) application of my good faith, sound reasoning to those facts and truths. That is from the point of view of someone who staunchly supports secular, pluralistic democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties. So yes of course, opinions will and do differ a lot. But the reasons for seeing abject MSM failure and even complicity is open for everyone to assess for themselves. Some will see it, others will not.
Q1: Is Trump firing the EAC commissioners and neutering the entire FEC for unspecified election integrity reasons true, or is that just lies and the face of rising corruption and tyranny in America under Trump and MAGA elites?
Q2: Is it the job of the MSM to connect the dots for us, or is there some moral, rational or other justification to not do that, while sitting on the sidelines and sticking with Switzerland-style neutrality?
Info sources:
In sweeping attack on elections, Trump fires leadership of key federal voting assistance commission
Trump Administration Fires Members of Independent Election Group — “The firings and a resignation render the Election Assistance Commission useless. The moves come as President Trump seeks to impose control over how ballots will be counted in the midterms.”
As of Thursday, the FEC Can’t Enforce Campaign Finance Laws — and That’s Only One of Its Problems
Dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference creates opening for foreign meddling
Trump fires Election Assistance Commission members ahead of midterms
The Media and the Ballot Box: Confronting 21st Century Voter Suppression
US Democracy Is in Danger and Mainstream Media Is Silent
U.S. Corporate Media Fails to Call Out GOP Voter Suppression Campaign
Why Do Mainstream Media Sugarcoat Trump’s Attacks on Democracy?
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