New York Times columnist David Brooks writes:
Donald Trump doesn't think in that way, either. He is anti-system. As my "PBS NewsHour" colleague Mark Shields points out, he has no experience being accountable to anybody, to a board of directors or an owner.
To say that Mr. Trump "has no experience being accountable to anybody" is a falsehood so blatant that if Mr. Trump himself had uttered it the Times itself would probably have inserted the words "falsely," as it has taken to doing in an unusually aggressive attempt to fact-check the president-elect.
As a television personality, Mr. Trump has had to be accountable to network executives; if his show did not get ratings, it would be canceled.
As a builder and landlord, Mr. Trump had to be accountable to customers. If tenants don't like the place, they move out, or don't pay rent. If prospective buyers don't like the place, they don't buy the condo.
As a borrower, Mr. Trump has had to be accountable to his lenders. If Mr. Trump doesn't make his debt payments on time, the lenders can seize collateral.
Capitalism has all sorts of built-in accountability mechanisms.
Contrast that to the accountability, or lack of it, faced by journalists like PBS NewsHour's Mark Shields. If his show doesn't get ratings, it doesn't get canceled, because it is public television, subsidized in part by taxpayer dollars. If Republicans in Congress try to cut back the subsidies because cable and Netflix and Amazon have made the need to subsidize television obsolete, the Democrats and their allies in the press cry "Sesame Street" and "First Amendment." If the show doesn't get ratings, Shields can blame the other journalists, or the show's anchor. For that matter, if Mr. Brooks makes or passes along false claims like this one about Trump's lack of accountability, what's his accountability? Does he risk having his pay cut, or losing his job? Or does saying negative things about Donald Trump, even if those things are false, actually help him commercially in the anti-Trump market of Times readers, pushing his column higher on the most-emailed list?