Lmao this is SO fucking true. It is much easier to just have a candidate write your story for you by quoting them to fill column inches instead of doing actual journalism and reporting on a story. People laugh when you call political press "stenographers" but

Then they get so much additional mileage bc they now have quotes that they can plug into their narratives, and fodder for columns, and man-on-the-street "how do you feel about this quote?" pieces. It's like a whalefall.

Shit, a character in West Wing even called them stenographers.