Old media finds itself in a bit of quandary these days. Since 2015-2016, mainstream outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN largely fueled themselves and their readers by resisting Donald Trump, who, against all odds and expectations, returned to the presidential office in January 2025. Liberal bias in the mainstream media is well documented, but now many household-name journalists have to wrestle about how to cover the new administration in lieu of their political opponent’s victory. Should they continue the resistance ethos and simply dogpile on the president? Or do they dial it back and try for a nuanced perspective that covers both the pros and cons of the new administration?

The problem is real, and the media is feeling it. Not only, though, must the media consider how to cover the new president. They also have to grapple with how they covered the last one. A new book by journalists Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios have written a new title called Original Sin about the White House’s coverup of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. The book’s May 20th release date coincides closely with the tragic statement of Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis.

Off the Hook?

While many find the book a commendable effort to right some wrongs, others are withholding praise, noting how Tapper specifically failed to report on Biden’s decline during his presidency. Among these critics is Mark Halperin, a longtime journalist who runs the 2WAY platform, a new video media venture that invites people from all over the country and from different backgrounds to contribute their views and opinions on a wide range of pressing issues. Halperin holds a daily “morning meeting” with Sean Spicer, who served as Press Secretary in Trump’s first term, and Dan Turrentine, a Democrat who has worked in politics for decades. Halperin also recently launched his own show called Next Up, and for the last couple of weeks, has highly criticized Tapper’s lack of journalistic acumen during the Biden presidency.

Halperin laments how the media’s failure in this crucial area contributed to a major crisis of trust between journalists and the broader public. The lack of coverage on Biden’s mental acuity was so apparent that many Americans now totally brush off legacy media’s reporting in general. If they lied about a president’s mental fitness, what else will they lie about? Journalists are supposed to reject partisanship and cover leaders in power with honesty. Instead, in this case they ignored the obvious and are now paying the price. The question is whether the mainstream media can course correct and regain the public’s trust.

New Media’s Rise

The coverup of Biden’s cognitive decline couldn’t have come at a worse time. New media platforms like YouTube, Substack, and X are starting to eat up more and more of people’s time and attention. Halperin’s 2WAY has achieved extraordinary success since its debut. Megyn Kelly, who formerly worked for Fox and NBC, now hosts her own show on YouTube and SiriusXM and enjoys millions of subscribers. The independent media landscape is blossoming as old media struggles to stay relevant. Maybe new media isn’t entirely the answer to all of our problems of institutional trust, but it seems that unless journalists return to a commitment to the truth and admit their own shortcomings, they will continue to lose ground, trust, and respectability.