Sad tale over trust

Until this week, the most famous quote related to World War I's Battle of Belleau Wood was U.S. Marine Capt. Lloyd Williams's declaration to a French commander: "Retreat, hell! We just got here." Now, a more famous quote could well become President Trump's alleged description of the battle's fallen Americans as "losers."

Like the war itself, today's political battle is between entrenched forces - Trump and Republicans on one side, Democrats and the media on the other. In the middle are the rest of us. The lack of movement by public opinion may not reflect an even split of support but rather a widespread view of both sides as equally unbelievable.

This latest controversy was triggered by an Atlantic article written by the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The article alleges damaging statements by Trump, such as dismissing the dead buried at AisneMarne American Cemetery as "losers" and "suckers." What is most striking about this story is that, ordinarily, it would be entirely unbelievable. What person, let alone an American president, would refer to brave Americans in such terms?

The problem is, Trump has made a long line of such unbelievable comments and then lied about them. Indeed, in denying this latest story, he insisted, "I never called John [McCain] a loser." Yet in 2015 he indeed did say of McCain, a former prisoner of war, "I like people who weren't captured. I don't like losers."

He later retweeted a headline: "Donald

Trump: John McCain Is ' A Loser.'" A Fox News reporter said that her own sources confirmed Trump disparaged veterans and did not want to drive to the cemetery. Trump has reached a point where there is nothing that most of us would rule out in terms of shocking or offensive statements. He often refers to people as "losers" and allegedly once said that of those who fought in Vietnam instead of getting a deferment or medical exclusion, as he did.

If an article included such an alleged statement by either President Bush, it would have been dismissed instantly as ridiculous. Over the past three years, Trump has made himself vulnerable to such allegations because of his history of outrageous remarks.

Yet the same is true of the media. Three years ago, a story of this kind would have been devastating for any president - but the media has rendered itself as unbelievable as the subject of its current ire. While denouncing Trump as a pathological liar, the media has been pathologically biased. Polls consistently show the media racing Trump to the bottom on trustworthiness. Most of the media now feeds a steady diet of unrelentingly negative stories to a shrinking audience of true believers.

As a result, the media has hit a historic low, with less than half of the populace finding it credible. Some polls show that the only group deemed less trustworthy than Trump is the media. The Knight Foundation has found that three-fourths of Americans believe the media is too biased, 54 percent believe reporters regularly misrepresent facts and 28 percent believe reporters make things up entirely.

There is a reason for this view of bias: It's true. Many journalists do not attempt to hide their anti-Trump agendas. In the age of "echo journalism," it is even viewed as an essential commitment on some networks. False stories have been published regularly, only to be quietly withdrawn or "corrected" after the news cycle has run.

Indeed, as reporters pummeled the White House with angry questions over the Atlantic story, a press conference held by Democratic nominee Joe Biden was the very image of deference and decorum. Reporters seemed to go out of their way to confirm months of criticism over the softball treatment given to Biden. Atlantic staff writer Edward-Isaac Dovere asked Biden, "When you hear these remarks - 'suckers,' 'losers,' recoiling from amputees - what does it tell you about President Trump's soul and the life he leads?"

There was a time when a statement in a major publication was taken as true. My children, however, have no such presumption about any news source. Even more disturbing, neither do I these days. The Atlantic article embodies the discomfort with movement journalism. It has been the repository of all things anti-Trump, with such articles as "Donald Trump, the Most Unmanly President" and "Donald Trump is a Broken Man." Past claims in The Atlantic on the Trump campaign, such as former Attorney General Jeff Sessions colluding with Russians, were debunked by the special counsel investigation. In an age of echo chamber journalism, The Atlantic is deafening.

The core alleged comment, attributed to unnamed sources, has been denied by a host of officials who were with Trump in France at that time, including figures such as former national security adviser John Bolton.

The article also states that Trump did not visit the cemetery in part over his concern that the rainy day would mess up his hair, but White House documents show that, as stated at the time, the military notified his staff that the presidential helicopter should be grounded. Bolton has confirmed the weather was the reason and noted that if this story were true, he would have made it a chapter in his anti-Trump book. Trump might not have wanted to go, but the reason was a bad helicopter day, not a bad hair day.