Reaping the Whirlwind – Stephen Bainbridge points out that the media laid the foundation for its own troubles

My generation turned against authority in a huge way. And, it must be said, with some justification. Watergate, Vietnam, and so on all called into question the legitimacy of most authority figures. As boomers entered the media, the MSM evolved from bastions - even defenders - of authority into authority’s chief public critic. Woodward and Bernstein defined the wet dreams of every subsequent journalist - to take down authority figures. And so it has been ever since, with every minor scandal being elevated into “[fill in the blank]-gate.”

But now this particular pigeon has come home to roost. The media’s credibility with the American public has been on the decline for years, but what Nixon called the “Silent majority” really was silent. They lacked the media megaphone to which journalists had access and so there was no one to challenge the media’s hegemonic control of the culture.