How American journalism lets down readers and voters

TO HEAL THE rifts in American politics in the lead-up to next year’s crucial election, American journalism urgently needs renewal. Instead, in much of the mainstream media, journalism is in the grip of an illiberal bias. That includes the , which is best-placed of any of the country’s newspapers to establish a common set of facts and frame of debate.In an essay James Bennet, s Lexington columnist, and a former editorial-page editor of the , argues that its pledge to pursue the news “without fear or favour” is no longer being honoured. Neither is the promise of the paper to “invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion”. Instead, pressure from left-leaning journalists and commercial staff who “do not believe readers can be trusted with potentially dangerous ideas or facts” is undermining the ’s claims to independence.