Experts as Unchecked Influencers

Credentialed figures can leave institutional settings and build huge direct audiences, then spread contested claims without newsroom or peer-review constraints. Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack posts about the Kirk assassination persisted in a weak theory even after court records pointed the other way, illustrating how the Left now hosts its own information free agents. — This highlights a structural shift where authority moves from institutions to personalities, eroding traditional epistemic checks across the political spectrum.