I encourage you to read Margaret Sullivan's op-ed in today's Washington Post, "Our democracy is under attack. Washington journalists must stop covering it like politics as usual." "Mainstream journalists want their work to be perceived as fair-minded and nonpartisan," Sullivan writes. "They want to defend themselves against charges of bias. So they equalize the unequal."
Some of her suggestions that might reframe the what-aboutism that seems to be destroying democracy:
• Toss out the insidious "inside-politics" frame and replace it with a "pro-democracy" frame.
• Stop calling the reporters who cover this stuff "political reporters." Start calling them "government reporters."
• Stop asking who the winners and losers were in the latest skirmish. Start asking who is serving the democracy and who is undermining it.
There's more & it's worth contemplating.
Update: I wrote this over 2 years ago & only today realized I'd never published it. I don't know why not. Still worth a read.