Glenn Reynolds:

The founders gave freedom of the press to the people, they didn't give freedom to the press. Keller positions himself as some sort of Constitutional High Priest, when in fact the "freedom of the press" the Framers described was also called "freedom in the use of the press." It's the freedom to publish, a freedom that belongs to everyone in equal portions, not a special privilege for the media industry.

This, as I've said before, is the result of the rise of "professional" journalism schools, who have created a mythos in the minds of journalists that places them somewhere above the legislative and executive branches, but just short of the the judicial branch, encouraged by a line of First Amendment cases that have given them a sense of invulnerability. They have forgotten that the press is, after all, still a business, and its basic job is to report news, not to create it, or ignore the law in pursuit of their own political scalps.

Unfortunately, the only ones who can correct this situation is the press itself, but it's like watching a stellar collision. It goes so slowly that you wonder if your grandchildren will have a responsible press.

A friend who's a civil engineer told me about studying an area of the Netherlands which had been unwittingly built on sediments which, after the sea salt was leached out, were composed mostly of an unstable clay that could liquify with only a slight shock. A witness described seeing an entire valley of farms begin to flow down toward the sea carrying houses and barns with it. He watched in wonder for a while, and filmed the event, until he realized that he was in the path of the oncoming surge and had to run for his life.

The MSM these days is built on the same kind of quicksand. This latest outrage may be the shock that liquifies its entire foundation. And, if the adults among the Democrats don't regain control, that whole party will be caught in the slide into oblivion.