and other times by not answering questions. but the whole goal is to undermine any idea of facts or evidence. >> in that environment, what in the world should news outlets do? i ask you because you have a new column for "the washington post" talking about news outlets need to rethink how they cover this upside down environment. what's your number one response for what news outlets should do? >> they should move on from this idea that they're trying to -- the audience is trying to get equal numbers of republicans and democrats or not offend mitch mcconnell's office or whatever it is and really get focused on what is our core mission. and i would argue the core mission is to present facts, present evidence, present an evidence-based view of the world and to also in my view defend the ideas of a democracy and a multi-racial democracy is part of what the media should be doing. what that looks like, i think, is defending and being unabashed