One reason American journalists are so insufferable is because...

 One reason American journalists are so insufferable is because they are, by and large, quite extreme.

 People with terrible personalities do tend to latch onto quite extreme ideologies, or extreme ideologies give people the green light to behave appallingly. This has been borne out by yet another study, although one using an unusual method, reiterating the blindingly obvious: that American journalists are much more Left-wing than the public at large.

Rather unsurprisingly, polls show American trust in the media declining, a trend that accelerated in 2008 when swathes of Americans came to believe journalists were conspiring to get Obama elected. I don’t think Donald Trump’s open hostility to journalists did him any harm, nor do I think it will harm the prospects of any future populist.

The danger is that journalism covers a variety of roles, from the people whose job it is to uncover corruption and hold politicians to account, to people employed to offer their opinions; in recent years the line between the two has become increasingly blurred, which poses obvious problems. 

That is because journalists perform the role of a clerisy, equivalent to a priesthood; all societies need a commentariat, but the problem is that traditionally priesthoods were constrained by hierarchies which prevented charismatic but unbalanced preachers from pushing too dangerous an idea; in more recent times, the pre-digital journalistic establishment played a similar restraining role.Rather unsurprisingly, polls show American trust in the media declining, a trend that accelerated in 2008 when swathes of Americans came to believe journalists were conspiring to get Obama elected. I don’t think Donald Trump’s open hostility to journalists did him any harm, nor do I think it will harm the prospects of any future populist.

Where there is no clear hierarchy, there is instead ruthless competition to acquire the most edgy, high-status opinion, all in an industry with declining wages and high-cost urban living. The result is Fisherian runaway progressivism, with competitors displaying the opinion equivalents of peacock’s feathers — impressive to look but grotesquely exaggerated