Leaking is Bad except when it's Good

In the wake of Trump's victory, the story arose that the Russians had hacked the election.  That vague declaration is intentional.  What is alleged is that the Russians managed to hack the DNC server and tricked John Podesta into revealing his email password.  The trove of emails were provided to WikiLeaks who published them throughout the campaign.  They were very embarrassing for the Democrats and Hillary.  However, we were repeatedly told by the media and the Democrats that the content of the emails was secondary to the hacking.  The people who provided the emails were very bad people.  Pay no attention to the emails and instead focus your indignant rage on those who revealed them.  Yes, it may all be true but the voters have no right to know.  Okay, I accept your terms.

Members of the deep state, likely holdovers from the Obama Administration, have been leaking the contents of secret phone calls that President Trump and his staff - notably Michael Flynn - to the media.  By the recently established rules, the media should blast the leakers for letting the public know about these phone calls.  No?  It turns out that now the leakers are heroes to be praised while the media reports with gusto about the content of the leaked phone calls.  Huh.

It is this sort of reporting that has led to the precipitous decline in trust for the media.  We have heads I win tails you lose reporting.  It reminds me of how government shutdowns are always the fault of the Republicans.  Republican president and Democratic Congress?  President is at fault for shutdown.  Democratic president and Republican Congress?  Congress is at fault.  The media too often functions as the PR department for the Democratic Party.