All of this is a tacit acknowledgement that journalism — and cable news especially — lost its way during the Trump years, when blatant calls to tribal instincts became the easiest pathway to ratings success.

But, just like the politics that placed Donald Trump in the White House, that media development didn’t appear out of thin air. It began slowly during George W. Bush’s administration, when figures like MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and FOX’s Bill O’Reilly came to dominate their networks and appeal to distinct political factions. The Tea Party revolt during the Obama years raised the stakes — elevating additional star commentators like Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow.

Still, the opinion gloves truly came off during the Trump administration. Even CNN felt compelled to join the fray or suffer the ratings consequences. Bare-knuckled competition for tribal loyalty led to deep extremes, places in mass media where authoritarians are praised and a discredited dossier stays in the headlines far longer than it should.

The shift now underway includes a reassessment from top business leaders. Former Disney chief Bob Iger last week asserted there’s a “problem of profiting from, I call it inaccuracy, from opinion and from presenting things in an inaccurate fashion.”