Nieman Reports: “Reporters pursued the president in a feeding frenzy. White House resistance didn’t deter them from pounding away, day after day, at his credibility. Critics, however, believed the issue to be hyped out of proportion. To them, parts of the media had abandoned their traditional neutrality for a misguided moral crusade to uphold the rule of law. “The gulf between what these critics are saying and what the press is doing,” a Washington Post columnist observed, “reflects among other things confusion about our role in American life.” That assessment was not about President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign. It was about the coverage 30 years ago of President Bill Clinton and questions surrounding his role in an Arkansas real estate deal known as Whitewater. As the U.S. barrels toward a defining election in November, confusion over the news media’s role in American life has only deepened. That’s partly been in response to an 81-year-old Democratic incumbent who has presented a confounding blend of governing success and declining abilities. But more profoundly, the press has struggled with its approach to Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee for the third consecutive election cycle. As is by now so familiar as to be a cliche, America has never seen a presidential candidate like Trump. Experts warn his brazen dishonesty exceeds that of any of his predecessors. And the threat he and his allies pose to the norms, freedoms, and institutions of the world’s most powerful nation lends extraordinary gravity to the collective decisions of the news business…”