[Genuine Realist]

I'm going to mount the soapbox here for a moment, and if I'm pompous in the process, I'll take the risk. The danger of fake news,which abounds, isn't the misinformation your party opponents fall for. It's the illusions you fall for yourself. I remember long ago some historian playfully describing the actual attitudes of the Founders' generation to freedom of religion - leave me free to practice what I believe and don't come round with hat superstitious nonsense of yours. Fake news is somewhat the same - leave off that foolishness of yours, but MY beliefs are built on solid rock. Well  . . . it's that sort of thing that leads to gritted teeth defenses of Trump - because fake news from the opposition began even before he was inaugurated and continues to this day.

I object to the false equivalence. The problem of attacking the legitimate press and fact- and source-based reporting, professional journalism, is not symmetrical. There’s a movement in this country that attacks facts straight on, with intention, and malice. Both Sides Now is a great folk song, not a political reality. IMO. Pretending equal attacks on truth is part of the problem. That’s a talking point of one side.

Your belief in the professionalism of the press is somewhat idiosyncratic these days. Most of the rest of us have noticed the dramatic falling off in the standards of the MSM in the last generation. 

Per a Gallup Poll two months ago, only 9% of Americans trust the mass media implicitly. Well over half have little confidence, and a third have no confidence at all. It is the media that has done this to itself over two generations. 

And even in your case, doesn't your confidence rely on the fact that the MSM you trust conforms to your value judgments? Do you trust Fox News to the same degree that you trust CBS? If you perceive Fox as agenda driven, and CBS as neutral, most of us would disagree completely.

[Genuine Realist]

I'm going to mount the soapbox here for a moment, and if I'm pompous in the process, I'll take the risk. The danger of fake news,which abounds, isn't the misinformation your party opponents fall for. It's the illusions you fall for yourself. I remember long ago some historian playfully describing the actual attitudes of the Founders' generation to freedom of religion - leave me free to practice what I believe and don't come round with hat superstitious nonsense of yours. Fake news is somewhat the same - leave off that foolishness of yours, but MY beliefs are built on solid rock. Well  . . . it's that sort of thing that leads to gritted teeth defenses of Trump - because fake news from the opposition began even before he was inaugurated and continues to this day.

I object to the false equivalence. The problem of attacking the legitimate press and fact- and source-based reporting, professional journalism, is not symmetrical. There’s a movement in this country that attacks facts straight on, with intention, and malice. Both Sides Now is a great folk song, not a political reality. IMO. Pretending equal attacks on truth is part of the problem. That’s a talking point of one side.

Your belief in the professionalism of the press is somewhat idiosyncratic these days. Most of the rest of us have noticed the dramatic falling off in the standards of the MSM in the last generation. 

Per a Gallup Poll two months ago, only 9% of Americans trust the mass media implicitly. Well over half have little confidence, and a third have no confidence at all. It is the media that has done this to itself over two generations. 

And even in your case, doesn't your confidence rely on the fact that the MSM you trust conforms to your value judgments? Do you trust Fox News to the same degree that you trust CBS? If you perceive Fox as agenda driven, and CBS as neutral, most of us would disagree completely.