Welcome to the beat, we begin with the visual news

that most Americans, most news viewers,

most people with an internet connection have now seen.

You're looking at it, maybe you've absorbed it,

maybe you've discussed it, unlike so many facts and stories

and developments in our modern life.

This is something we are all seeing together.

It's an image we've seen.

And Americans have seen that I would argue

based on the information we have,

even if many typically use different sources

from media in information and have different ideas

about what the big story of the day is,

or what they've heard, or what's important.

This unprecedented mug shot

of the indicted former president, legally presumed innocent,

has pierced the filter bubbles

and often polarized experiences of our era.

Just about everyone I think has seen

what is now an indelible, permanent part of the history

and the reality of this defendant slash former president,

Donald Trump.

...