In my paper this morning, there was this interesting op-ed column from a member of the paper’s Editorial Board.
The longer this campaign lasts, the more I'm ready to believe Donald Trump is the Slim Shady of modern political journalism. He's been sent here to destroy us. Either that, or he's glommed onto the fatal weakness at its heart — and is doing whatever he can to let it destroy itself.
Trump's genius has been his willingness to say, do and propose things so outlandish, so unsettling in tone and substance — so disqualifying under the old rules — that they've caused the system to malfunction. Trump looks at the mainstream press as a man holding a stack of thick cardboard sheets might look at an office copy machine. He knows if he sticks enough of them through the copier at once, the machine will jam.
I am less worried about Clinton's chances than I am about what this election says about the structural defects of the press. Because for all the talk that the media is biased against Clinton, I believe the bigger problem for the media is structural. And its biggest flaw is tucked right inside one of its virtues: Modern political journalism can't abide an unfair fight, and it's set up to value, even demand, a good contest.
It keeps the race closer, less boring, and it enables the reporters to be right in the middle where they like to be, bashing one side, then the other. It feels fair.
Only, it's not. Not fair. And not good journalism, either.