THE PARADOX OF THE NOSTALGIC “PROGRESSIVE:” Tom Brokaw: Journalists Used to Be Trusted, But Social Media Ruined That.

As Richard Fernandez noted a week ago: Press Oracles Hope to Resurrect the Cronkite Age, When They Controlled the News.

Good luck returning to that era. When RatherGate broke in September of 2004, Glenn wrote:

The world of Big Media used to be a high-trust environment. You read something in the paper, or heard something from Dan Rather, and you figured it was probably true. You didn’t ask to hear all the background, because it wouldn’t fit in a newspaper story, much less in the highly truncated TV-news format anyway, and because you assumed that they had done the necessary legwork. (Had they? I’m not sure. It’s not clear whether standards have fallen since, or whether the curtain has simply been pulled open on the Mighty Oz. But they had names, and familiar faces, so you usually believed them even when you had your doubts.)

The Internet, on the other hand, is a low-trust environment. Ironically, that probably makes it more trustworthy.

No wonder Tom is so nostalgic for the good ol’ days.