Opinion: Serious journalism is back. Where was it during Trump’s campaign?

To the editor: Doyle McManus concludes his column thusly: “Serious, solid journalism is coming back into fashion. As long as we remember to practice it.” (“The death of facts has been greatly exaggerated,” Opinion, Jan. 25)

Good news, indeed. But it does bring up the question: Where has “serious, solid journalism” been in recent years? And why?

To be sure the Internet has been a disruptor of the newspaper business. Reading between McManus’ lines, however, it sounds like it took the election of Donald Trump to bestir complacent journalists to do their jobs.

As our new president would say: “Sad!”

Marc Beauchamp, Redding

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To the editor: McManus readily admits that our new president had a pretty good week.

It occurs to me this war on the press and “alternative facts” blowup may just have been a smokescreen for Trump’s real dirty work. Activities such as working on repeal of the Affordable Care Act, restricting federal funds for abortion counseling, defunding Planned Parenthood, gagging federal agencies and the steady stream of truculent, ill-prepared nominees being approved to round out his lean, mean cabinet are just a few examples of his (good?) week. Sounds like a classic head-fake.

The phrase “watch your back” has taken on new meaning in the era of Trump. Please, journalists, watch your backs and ours.

Joel Lander, Huntington Beach

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To the editor: McManus wrote a nice self-congratulatory column.

It’s good to know that serious journalism is coming back in fashion. Unfortunately, it may be too late: Trump has at least four years to ruin the country.

It would have been nice if the press had practiced more serious journalism during the campaign. Instead, to name one example, whole forests were felled to print stories about private email servers.

Paul Hunt, Sierra Madre

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