It’s commonplace to say Americans can’t build big public works anymore. But recently I saw two places that complicated the story. 1/2

One of my six rules for media survival: 1/2

Rather than a poll or even a focus group, I walk through neighborhoods at election time, knocking on doors and talking with people on the street. Whoever answers, that’s my story. You learn a lot when you find people where they live. 1/2

1/2 Here’s a revolutionary idea: In the age of the internet and AI, of manufactured reality, of screens upon screens where we all seem to be slipping toward the dream world of The Matrix, it’s helpful to meet human beings face to face. Young people aren’t dating as much; we spend so much time on our phones that it wrecks coherent thought; and many Americans seem to have stopped inviting people into their homes—but at election time, I have a habit of inviting myself to people’s homes. I walk through neighborhoods, knock on doors, catch people as they walk their dogs or clean their garages. I’ve done this for more than 20 years, drawing on the example of a journalist who did it for more than 40 years before that. None of it is scientific but it gives some ground truth. Polling offers a rough approximation of how people might vote, though never precisely enough to be sure if the election is close. Face to face conversation, in the neighborhoods where people live, gives you an idea of how people think. 1/2

One way to think of voters this fall: the determined v. the disappointed. Based on voter interveiws on Georgia, here’s part of my exchange with Fredricka Whitfield of @CNN:

It’s commonplace to say that America can’t build great public works anymore. And there’s much truth in that - in which generation will California finish its high speed rail? Meanwhile China spreads rail lines and vast airports across the country. But in some recent travel I came across two counter-examples that at least complicate the picture. 1/2

Here are two more of six rules for news media survival, offered in a lecture series named for a legendary president of CBS News: 1/2

One of six rules for media survival that I offered in the Richard Salant lecture, named in honor of a legendary president of CBS News. 1/2

One of six rules for media survival, which I outlined in a speech named after Richard Salant, a legendary president of CBS News. 1/2