On a wider scale, traditional media outlets outside of ABC also seem unwilling to grapple with this news-suppression scandal. For example, according to Fox News, as the outrage permeated social media last Tuesday after the video release that morning, from noon Eastern Time until midnight, there was no mention of the tape at all on MSNBC, CBS, or NBC. On my news channel, CNN, there has been zero on-air coverage all week long, all the way through Sunday when we air a show specifically dedicated to covering the news media.

The reticence of even competitors to discuss the story unmasks the kind of group-think that presently poisons so much of corporate media. Narrative conformity, it seems, prevails over the healthy spirited desires to outperform competitors and, when appropriate, highlight their ethical lapses. Such unanimity proves to Americans that the media in the age of Trump act far more like an opposition clique than hustling truth-seekers. Reflective of this unnatural fraternity, CBS last week even fired Ashley Bianco, a former ABC News employee whom that network suspected of leaking the damaging Robach footage. But Bianco did nothing wrong at CBS, denies the ABC leak allegation, and the head of Project Veritas insists the real informant remains employed at ABC.

As deleterious as the crisis in journalism is for our country, it does also represent political opportunity for President Trump.