It’s understandable, and rational, that the American people don’t trust the media. Time and time again the media have proven themselves to be untrustworthy.
Still, I sometimes find myself wondering how different things might have been, how the press could have saved itself, had reporters just been willing to work with honor and walk down the painful road of introspection when they were wrong.
That last phrase, “walk down the painful road of introspection,” is not my own. It belongs to Bob Woodward, the “legendary” Washington Post reporter. Woodward became famous for his coverage of Watergate in the 1970s. A lot of conservatives dislike Woodward, and I understand why. Yet if we completely ignore the legacy media we overlook some gold.
In this case, the gold is “The Press vs the President,” a long series of articles by Jeff Gerth published in January 2023 in the Columbia Journalism Review. It is the most comprehensive, well-written, and damning indictment of the media I have ever read, and the kind of reporting that makes one consider all news events in a new light. For example, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s release of formerly classified documents revealed the truly deep and evil extent of the Russiagate hoax. The documents detail how the intelligence community set up President Trump for failure in 2016 by falsely claiming he was a tool of the Kremlin. The media peddled garbage, ignored contradictory evidence, and sometimes flat-out lied. For me, Gabbard’s revelations put an exclamation point on “The Press vs the President.” (Seriously, go read it.)
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