53 min listen
The Specter of Political Violence
FromThe Field
ratings:
Length:
47 minutes
Released:
Oct 29, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
This episode contains strong language.With an election in which uncertainty may abound, concerns are swirling around the possibility of political violence. Experts and officials — including those charged with the security of polling stations and ballot counting facilities — have been taking extra precautions.Americans across the political spectrum appear to be preparing themselves for this possibility, too: Eight of the 10 biggest weeks for gun sales since the late 1990s took place since March this year. Many of those sales were to people buying guns for the first time.Today’s episode examines these anxieties from two perspectives.Andy Mills, a senior audio producer for The New York Times, speaks to patrons of gun stores in Washington State about their motivations and sits down with a first-time gun owner who relays his anxiety, ignited by the unrest and protests in Seattle over the summer.And Alix Spiegel, a senior audio editor for The Times, visits three women of color in North Carolina, one of whom says the scenes in Charlottesville, the killing of Black people at the hands of the police and the threat of white militias have encouraged her to shift her anti-gun stance. Guests: Andy Mills, a senior audio producer for The New York Times; Alix Spiegel, a senior audio editor for The Times; and Reid J. Epstein, who covers campaigns and elections for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: Gun buyers say they are motivated by a new sense of instability that is pushing them to purchase weapons for the first time, or if they already have them, to buy more.
Released:
Oct 29, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (16)
The Lessons of 2016: The media’s coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign has come to be criticized for operating under three key assumptions: that Hillary Clinton was certain to be the Democratic nominee, that Donald Trump was unlikely to be the Republican nominee, and that once Clinton and Trump had become their party’s nominees, she would win. With voting for 2020 set to begin in Iowa on Monday, “The Daily” sat down with Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The New York Times, to discuss the lessons he — and the organization — learned from 2016. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: This is our guide to the 2020 election.We’ve sent reporters to every corner of the country and told them not to make any assumptions in this election cycle. Here are some of the most in-depth stories we’ve told in an effort to help the country understand itself.As part of a new approach to election coverage, The Times’s editorial board has re-examin by The Field