Note to newspaper editors: That a politician is communicating directly with the public (for instance via social media) is NOT the problem. In fact, it is what a ‘representative democracy’ SHOULD be all about.
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What is a problem are the lies, the antagonism, etc. But this is a problem we see across media channels. What is also a problem is when a politician can micro-target messages to different groups of people.
Those are things we need to find solutions for.
Those are things we need to find solutions for.
But having a politician announce something directly to the people they represent is NOT undermining democracy. That IS a representative democracy.
But more than that, when we talk about the free press, the fourth estate, we are defining it as one of the four ‘pillars’ of democracy. We are not a ‘layer’. The other three pillars do not need to seek permission from the press to communicate with the public. 
Our role as the press is to hold those other pillars to account, and to make the public factfully informed. But it can never be the role of the press to demand to be the gatekeepers of information.
We can demand access, but we cannot demand exclusivity.
We can demand access, but we cannot demand exclusivity.
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