By Tom McGregor, CCTV.com commentator and editor, based in Beijing
And if it's not about the Russians, they interview psychiatrists, who never met United States President Donald J. Trump, delivering a so-called professional diagnosis insisting Trump suffers from mental illness and he must be impeached for our public safety.
The media has gone into over-drive attacking the Trump administration, but in the process of doing so, it's the journalists and their echo chamber, Democratic Party politicians, who look like the crazy ones.
Messengers Should Not Be the Message
The media is perceived more as fake news now and no longer as the messengers who inform people on current events. This devastating image could be irreversible.
Reporters should understand their role is to serve as messengers for the public. They are not the decision-makers, the entertainers or the sports players. Telling the true story, whether for good or bad, must be told.
Nonetheless, with the ascendancy of Trump's political career, many journalists have lost their way and have forgotten that there's other stories the public should know about.
International News for Everyone
With the Internet and smartphones, our world is more connected than ever before, yet the MSM is ignoring the masses by focusing on Trump.
Meanwhile, there's major headline news coming out of all regions of the globe, including Asia and this should be of great significance since the East is rising in prosperity and diplomatic influence, while the West is declining as a driver of global economic growth and stabilizer of world peace.
Asia is the future and the West will either play the role as a partner or an obstacle to Asia's inevitable rise.
Asia is Misunderstood to the West
Most MSM reporters, even those based in bureaus in Asian cities, fail to understand the region they cover. They have been blinded by ideological illusions. For them, democracy — good; non-democracy — bad — and that's how they frame their perceptions.
The countries — Japan, South Korea, and India are depicted as wonderful superstars of the Northeast Asia region, while China, which makes no effort to endorse democracy, is cast as the villain bent on destroying not only its people but striving for global dominance in a malicious manner.
The MSM makes no effort to tell a different story. Nonetheless, China has risen from abject poverty just a few decades ago to become the world's second-largest economy and some say the nation will surpass the US for the top spot in the next decade or so ahead.
Living in a Bubble
Another reason, MSM reporters can not understand Asia is because they have already enjoyed illustrious and successful careers in the West, or they see working in Asia as just a resume-enhancer.
Children of MSM reporters are unlikely to attend local public schools, but they go to international schools where they can be among expats.
MSM reporters do not often communicate with local people in their communities. Yes, many of them are fluent in Chinese, but they live in a bubble and unless they pop it and speak to regular folks, they will never learn the real China.
To Change the World; Transform Yourself
Many MSM reporters lack humility or self-awareness. But who can blame them? Most likely, they graduated from an Ivy League School, got good grades, so they learned that if you write to please the professors and bosses, you can succeed.
Unfortunately, this is exactly why the MSM is failing big-time. The bosses in the MSM are saying, "Talk about Trump" and the hired reporters do not have the courage to say, "but many people don't care anymore."
Will the MSM ever learn? Perhaps yes, but that's not likely to occur until after a few major media outlets go bankrupt, which would serve as a wake up call.
Meanwhile, the reporters who look East for news may discover there's a very interesting story out here and global audiences may want to learn more about the continent as well.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.