We Broke the Panama Papers Story. Our Next Mission: Donald Trump

How about they start adhering to the practices that made journalism a cornerstone of functioning democracies for so long? Such as reporting all the facts critically, and not approaching each story from the same, tired left-wing liberal agenda. (I say this as a left wing liberal). The guardian and most of the left leaning media was asleep when the DNC steamrolled HTC through. They were asleep to the possibility of a Trump candidacy and presidency, and fell into his trap by giving virtually unlimited media coverage; we may be in a post truth world but we are more certainly in a world in which there really is no such thing as bad publicity. They refused to pay attention to the facts of the Brexit polls. So I don't have much sympathy for their appeal.

Why didn't they hold Obama accountable? Or the Bushes, maybe Hillary for Benghazi? I don't remember all of this hand-wringing and crying back then.

What exactly came out of the Panama Papers story?

All I recall is a lot of noise, and some shaming of second and third ranking individuals, if that.

Basically, some servants being put in their place. Not for them to do (half-assed with corner shops) what the owners do much better with first class service.

> The highest level of collaboration – which is what these times require – would be special joint projects. A possible first project could be to look into his international business ties, and those of his billionaire cabinet, to find all of their conflicts of interest.

> Donald Trump alone has his hands in hundreds of companies, so it is impossible for one news outlet alone to investigate this properly. But it is not impossible if there’s a collaborative investigation.

> Another project could be to investigate his ties to Russia and his past with Russia, which also is very promising, even if you don’t believe a single word of the Trump dossier Buzzfeed made public. Unknown conflicts of interests in both fields can turn out to be a huge danger to the national security of the US.

> Collaboration could even mean working with foreign news outlets in different countries, whose reporters certainly might have more knowledge of Trump’s respective business partners than a US-based journalist.

this sounds more like a targeted smear campaign than journalism.

Is the "no politics on HN" rule dead?

"Another project could be to investigate his ties to Russia and his past with Russia"

OK, I'm a big fan of investigative journalism but this just seems to be a red herring, kinda like the allegations that where made about Obama's Birth Certificate.

So what if he had dealings with Russia, or Putin? Some agencies have had 'secret' dealings with much shadier characters then Putin in the past(puppets such as Pinochet, Noriega, Saddam ...). This just seems like a waste of time, punching at a smoke screen.

If there really is a disgust for his treatment of the press. I think the press could start by ignoring his twitter feed and "alternative fact" stories. His strategy is to make us distrust our information sources and the "media" is playing into it directly. It would be best for all involved if the press began reporting on facts and not comparing them to the rubbish he and his administration says. Especially when they are about things that are seemingly important to only Trump (inauguration turnout, who's a loser, etc.). At this point I would go as far as to say that any coverage of press conferences would be best to just provide direct full quotation with hyperlinks to other direct quotations or measurable facts from trustable sources that are contradictory. The only way to fight back is to take the higher ground. If he treats the press the way he does now, the best strategy is for the press core to END the press conference by ceasing questions and leaving. If all he's going to do is avoid, insult and lie then there's no news, he's been doing all of that since long before he ever thought of running for president.