Media Criticism Isn’t a Shadowy Left-Wing "Industry," It’s a Necessary Watchdog

There’s no organized left-wing industry targeting mainstream outlets—just a few critics who want journalism to live up to its potential.

Last week, in an interview with NPR, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman pushed a pretty wild conspiracy theory about media critics that I feel begrudgingly obligated to address.

Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

During the latter half of her Fresh Air interview, NPR host Dave Davies asked Haberman about media criticism. Specifically, he asked her about people who “say that The Times and the media have given Trump credibility by treating things he says as if they should be taken seriously when they don't deserve that treatment, or when he gives a garbled answer about, you know, say, child care, and it's rewritten to sound clear and credible.”

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In other words, he asked her about “sanewashing,” a term I did not coin but did help popularize in recent articles of mine:

DAVE DAVIES, HOST, NPR: So let's talk about some of the criticisms of the media. I mean, I will just say, you don't have to answer for all media or even the many reporters and editors at The New York Times who are working on this campaign. But I'm interested in how you respond when people say that The Times and the media have given Trump credibility by treating things he says as if they should be taken seriously when they don't deserve that treatment, or when he gives a garbled answer about, you know, say, child care, and it's rewritten to sound clear and credible. In general, I mean, is there a point here?

Haberman’s response left me floored. She argued that “there is an industry … that is dedicated toward attacking the media.” She then repeats this claim twice more (“this industry that literally exists to attack the press broadly”) multiple times. (bolded emphasis mine):

MAGGIE HABERMAN: I think that the media does a very good job covering Trump. There are always going to be specific stories that could have been better, should have been better, that are written on deadline, and people are not being as precise as they should be. I think there is an industry, bluntly, Dave, that is dedicated toward attacking the media, especially as it relates to covering Donald Trump and all coverage of Trump. And I think that Trump is a really difficult figure to cover because he challenges news media process every day, has for years. The systems are just fundamentally - they were not built to deal with somebody who says things that are not true as often as he does or speaks as incoherently as he often does. I think the media has actually done a very good job showing people who he is, what he says, what he does. I think most of the information that the public has about Trump is because of reporting by the media. And I guess I don't really understand how this industry that literally exists to attack the press broadly - and the media is not a monolith. It's not a league. But this industry that exists to do that - I don't see how they think they are a solution by undermining faith in what we do. That's been very confusing to me.

She then clarifies that she is not talking about criticism from the right, but is speaking about criticism from the left, referring to it as “this industry on the left that attacks the press.”