Poison the People Against the Press 

and a Bastion of Freedom is Weakened

  
   Consider, if you will, on how we are now being taught to not trust the main media. Perhaps we should consider on what is happening.
   The best way to fight truth is to silence it. And, one way to do that is to teach that the source is not reliable. I think of the times I've pointed out something on Snopes, only to be told that Snopes is not to be trusted.
   Kill the messenger, and you kill the message.
   The same is true of the main media: If you kill that messenger, you kill the messages it seeks to give. If you poison people's esteem for the media -- if you get them to where they don't believe it -- then it doesn't matter what the media says, you've disabled it. To the degree people don't believe it, you've disabled it.
   A car can sit in the driveway and still be owned. But, if it doesn't drive, it doesn't drive. A broken-down car never gets to its destination.
   And, if freedom is our destination and the car breaks down?
   So, is there a lesson here in how to disable a free press? It does not matter so much that a nation has a free press, if you've discredited it. Having a free press only matters if that press is to be believed. If you poison people's minds against it, you reduce the effectiveness of that press.
  A press's power is in its trust. If you can discredit it, you can disempower it.
  And, one of the bastions of freedom will be lessened. 
  A nation that would not lose its freedoms should not let this happen. Perhaps we think it a small thing -- what is going on -- but is it?