Matt briefly alluded to this at the very end, but a key issue missing from almost all of the debate is emergence of a strong wave of anti-elitism or "populism" on both the right and the left over the last 30 to 40 years. This has come about not due to the rise of the internet or the collapse of the mainstream media's business model but due to the collapse of the middle and working class, and their communities, and the destabilizing levels of wealth and income inequality that have destroyed the nation's sense common purpose and faith in its institutions, not just in the mainstream media, but in federal and state governments, labor unions, corporations, universities, the health care system, both political parties, elections and "experts" of all kinds. They are no longer trusted - in fact are widely hated and resented - so why would journalists whose stock in trade is quoting them and citing them somehow escape. The system is not working for the great majority of Americans and they (correctly) see the mainstream media as agents of the system that is failing, even actively screwing, them. At the same time, the elite mainstream media is increasingly run by and for the "educated" elites who run these failing institutions. I went to an Ivy League journalism school, reported for mainstream newspapers for 30 years, was on the board of a national journalism organization, taught investigative reporting and have watched this sad decline accelerate since I got out of the business in 2006. Traditional media has some serious problems specific to itself that have made it more vulnerable to the larger trends and less able to play a remedial role in the larger decline of the society, but the overall decline of the society - it's failure and dysfunction for the large majority (while enriching the rich) - is the overarching problem. Many mainstream journalists, including myself, hoped to be part of the solution. Obviously things have not turned out as we'd hoped. In retrospect, we failed to clearly understand what was going around us. Ultimately, mainstream journalism as it now exists needs to crash and burn, which it is doing now and will not be a loss because it (including, especially, the "woke' careerists at the elite media) has fully signed on as defender of the elites against the internet rabble wherever privatized censorship and cancellation can be imposed. How this will all turn out I cannot say, but "Follow the money," is still as good a guide as any. Mass journalism is a powerful force in society, but not an independent one. It always, in the end, follows the larger forces, especially the money and the interests of the people with money.