Philip Bump is concerned and miffed at Tucker Carlson’s ongoing campaign to collapse public confidence in the Infotainment Media Complex. It’s a good article, and Bump is spot on here:

The media’s role is to challenge power and help Americans understand what’s true and what’s false. The respect the mainstream media is given is in part a function of tradition and in part a function of recognizing that this role is important. That there should be outside institutions willing to examine the power held by elected officials and businesses and even others in the media, even when doing so is uncomfortable.

The problem with WaPo, Bump, and the rest of the Acela Corridor Establishment-approved media is they no longer do what Bump just described. “The media” is biased, and it shows.

Gretchen Whitmer? Free Pass. Even as she and her husband, like many other progressive rulers, broke their own covid pandemic diktats.

Ron Desantis? Dig. Dig!! DIG!!! Scrape up everything you can find and report it, even if it’s not true.

The mainstream media cannot hold official DC to account because they are now full members of that establishment. The days of a shoe-leather reporter who grew up in a working class union household going after the rich and powerful of Wall Street and DC are over. The Infotainment Media Complex TV stars and glorified print media propaganda writers attend the same elite institutions of learning and travel in the same social circles as the people they scribble and yap about.

Also, part of the legitimacy problem is the blurring of real news reporting and commentary. Not enough of the former, and too much of the latter. In fact, commentary has sneaked into news. Note the increase in adverbs:

In the old days, an article would simply inform us, “the senator stated…”

Now, “news” organizations who hate that senator will write “the senator wrongly stated…”

In 1977, 72% of Americans expressed a Great Deal/Fair Amount of trust in the press. Today that number stands at 34%. (Gallup)

Any wonder why?