![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-28-at-3.44.46-PM.png\")
<\/a>Donald Trump EPA<\/p><\/div>\n
It was many years ago, but the memory lingers of the first time I was embarrassed to be a journalist. It was a steamy summer afternoon and reporters and photographers were shoehorned into a small Manhattan apartment for a civic group\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
As we waited, a photographer wearing a \u201cPress\u201d card in his battered fedora picked up a bud vase from a table, pulled out the rose and drank the water in one gulp.<\/p>\n
The hostess was horrified and shrieked, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d He looked at her as if she were nuts and said simply, \u201cIt\u2019s hot in here and I\u2019m thirsty.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laugh now at the outlandishness of the photographer\u2019s behavior, but at the time I cringed and wondered: Do I really want to be a journalist and end up like that?<\/p>\n
America should be so lucky now. Bad manners are the least of it.<\/p>\n
In the sixth month of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, we are witnessing an unprecedented meltdown of much of the media. Standards have been tossed overboard in a frenzy to bring down the president.<\/p>\n
Trump, like all presidents, deserves coverage that is skeptical and tough, but also fair. That\u2019s not what he\u2019s getting.<\/p>\n
What started as bias against him has become a cancer that is consuming the best and brightest. In rough biblical justice, media attempts to destroy the president are boomeranging and leaving their reputations in tatters.<\/p>\n
He accuses them of publishing fake news, and they respond with such blind hatred that they end up publishing fake news. That\u2019ll show him.<\/p>\n
CNN is\u00a0suffering an especially bad case<\/a>\u00a0of Trump Derangement Syndrome, even trying to make a virtue of its hostility to the president. In doing so, executives conveniently confuse animus with professional skepticism, and cite growing audiences as proof of their good judgment.<\/p>\n The bottom line matters, and there is certainly an audience for hating Trump all the time. But facts and fairness separate major news organizations from any other business looking to make a buck, and a commitment to them creates credibility and public trust.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how CNN sold itself for years \u2014 boring but trustworthy. Now it\u2019s boring and untrustworthy.<\/p>\n For all its bravado, the network might be having doubts about its course. Its apology for and retraction of a story connecting a Trump associate to a Russia investment fund, and the\u00a0resignation of three journalists<\/a>\u00a0involved, suggest the network fears it has lost control of its own agenda. It also issued a special edict barring all Russia coverage without approval from top bosses.<\/p>\n