The force of her argument arises from the undeniable truth that American trust in our institutions, from the public-health sector to the federal government to the mainstream media, has cratered over the last seven years, our confidence shaken by so many serial scandals (Russiagate, the suppression of Covid-19 truths because they were held by “the wrong sort of people,” etc.) but more broadly by the activist tenor that has infected all public life — not just the mainstream media — since the Dawn of Trump. Far too many people now seem, on a coldly calculating level, to regard inconvenient facts or truths as a peacetime luxury . . . and friend, haven’t you heard? There’s a war on. Despite the eagerness of those complicit in this epistemic collapse to blame it all on Trump, they were the agents of their own reputational demise.

The thought of “reputational demise” of course then made my mind turn to the ongoing defamation case against Fox News.

[Sauce for the goose … — Ed]