I quite agree with the need for trusted journalism. I agree that politicians are leveraging social media to lie and propagandize.

But let’s talk a little bit about media journalism too. Cable news in particular, on both the left and the right, have been sacrificing trust by devoting much of their primetime lineup to opinion programs that masquerade as objective news.

Whether they mean to or not, these outlets are training people not to trust journalism.

My own political ideas are quite leftist, and when I watch CNN or MSNBC programs in the evening, I’m disposed to agree with much of what their celebrity anchors say. At the same time, I recognize that much of what I’m hearing is not objective journalism. It’s opinion offered up as entertainment, and often it’s polarized and not trustworthy.

Obviously, the same can be said of Fox, and even more forcibly.

So yes, the United States would be well served by having politicians filtered through trained journalists. But trained journalists could do a better job of being trustworthy. Right now, because of what primetime cable news has turned into, many Americans see journalists as compromised and not reliable.

That’s a problem trained journalists need to fix.