The Mueller Report is in. Despite the incessant screeching of the likes of Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff and Rachel Maddow and Jim Acosta, there was no video of Donald Trump telling Vladimir Putin that he would have more flexibility after he was elected to the Presidency. There were no reports of pallets of cash being delivered to the Kremlin. Robert Mueller went all in and couldn’t get the big get. It is then, with a clearly heavy heart that, the New York Times’ David Brooks takes a look at his profession and blames scandal politics for getting it all wrong. He should have taken a hard look at scandal journalism.

The title of Brooks’ article is “We’ve All Just Made Fools of Ourselves — Again” with the subhead “The awful corruption of scandal politics”. David Brooks begins his article with outrageous claims against Donald Trump by well-known d’bags (technical term). He begins with a call for sober reflection and apologies from Senate seat loser Robert Francis O’Rourke (Beta!) and others. Then, Brooks blames Republicans and Sean Hannity for using the phrase “witch hunt” and besmirching swamp dwellers. Well, David, it was a witch hunt, in my humble opinion, and it was promoted by the swamp dwellers in the FBI and Congress, aided and abetted by the media elitists like you who should know much better. But, no. Because since Watergate, y’all have been jonesing for another Republican scalp. And, Brooks knows it. From the article:

The sad fact is that Watergate introduced a poison into the American body politic. Richard Nixon’s downfall was just and important, but it opened up the mouthwatering possibility that you don’t need to do the hard work of persuading people to join your side. Instead, you can destroy your foes all at once through scandal.

Politics since Watergate has been defined by a long string of scandals and pseudo-scandals — Iran-contra, Whitewater, Valerie Plame, Benghazi, Solyndra, swift-boating. Politico last year compiled a list of 46 scandals that were at one time or another deemed “worse than Watergate.”

Because there were no Washington Scandals before Watergate, riiight? Watergate that made stars out of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward and made superheroes out of journalists because they single-handedly took out a President with their ink stained fingers. I am not a fan of either man. Remember Bob Woodward interviewed comatose CIA Director William Casey? And, Carl Bernstein said on Sunday that the Russia story was one of the “great reporting jobs in history”.

Woodward and Bernstein made scandal journalism sexy in the modern age. Everyone who went to Journalism School since then has wanted the “BIG” get. Get a Republican President. Republicans don’t think properly. Again, from Brooks’ editorial:

Since Watergate launched this Age of Investigation, government has become much more transparent. As a result, public trust in institutions has plummeted. The scandal culture hasn’t ultimately helped one party over the other. It’s just spread a corrosive cynicism that has disabled government altogether.

I think cynicism about government is good. Every citizen should question the government. And Brooks is wrong. Government isn’t disabled. Most government agencies and workers are good people. They do their jobs every day. And most important government is local government, which really touches the people of the United States.

What David Brooks and all the elitist media types don’t see and can’t see is that scandal journalism and scandal politics aren’t necessarily the problem. Humans are scandalous people.

The problem is the willful blindness of the media. You want Pulitzer Prizes? You want the accolades accorded to superheroes? You want to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”? You have to step away from the herd and ask the right questions. You have to ask the questions that might get you thrown out of the “right” clubs and cocktail parties.

I’ll help you out with the Trump Russia Collusion Narrative. Does this make sense? Where did this begin? Who benefits? The answers are out there. The answers may rock your world. Scandal journalism needs to be reborn.

Photo Credit: Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay/Pixabay License/Cropped