Making journalism great again

Jack Shafer at Politico dresses up the obvious in a superhero costume in his editorial, "Trump Is Making Journalism Great Again":

Donald Trump and his forthcoming presidency may be the greatest gift to Washington journalism since the invention of the expense account. His unorthodox approach to politics and governance has vaporized the standard, useful, yet boring script for reporting on a new administration’s doings...

Now, before the Committee to Protect Journalists throws up the batsign and the rest of us bemoan Trump’s actions as anti-press—which they are—let’s thank the incoming president for simplifying our mission. If Trump’s idea of a news conference is to spank the press, if his lieutenants believe the press needs shutting down, if his chief of staff wants to speculate about moving the White House press scrum off the premises, perhaps reporters ought to take the hint and prepare to cover his administration on their own terms. Instead of relying exclusively on the traditional skills of political reporting, the carriers of press cards ought to start thinking of covering Trump’s Washington like a war zone, where conflict follows conflict, where the fog prevents the collection of reliable information directly from the combatants, where the assignment is a matter of life or death.

In his own way, Trump has set us free. Reporters must treat Inauguration Day as a kind of Liberation Day to explore news outside the usual Washington circles.

What Shafer means, but dare not say, is that now the mainstream media must actually do their own legwork on stories, instead of allowing a Democratic administration to hand feed them pablum for public consumption.

Why haven't journalists been doing true investigative journalism all along? Because the MSM has allowed itself the luxury of confirmation bias for far too long. Instead of allowing the facts to shape their reporting, they allow their own worldview to shape what and how things get reported.

The fourth estate, otherwise known as the institution of journalism, is the public's last defense against a government which will encroach on our liberties if we allow them. When the fourth estate falls, that leaves the public's only option as open rebellion. The fourth estate should ALWAYS be cynical towards those in power, regardless of the political affiliation of "the-powers-that-be".

However, regardless of who the next Republican president happened to be, whether it was Trump, Jeb Bush, or any of the seven dwarfs, a GOP president was destined to be labeled as a racist, heartless SOB with delusions of imperialism, and solidly in the pocket of the wealthy. It was easy to predict the MSM would suddenly rediscover their true purpose for a Republican president. So what Shafer wrote was only dressing up a truism as somehow caused by Trump.

After an 8 year hiatus, the MSM is back to work. Now we get to see how a functioning media is supposed to work. If Republicans have a virtue, this is it.