Criticizing the theater criticism brand of political journalism, in which notionally "objective" journalists pass judgment on ties and sighs, on how "things are gonna play" without any evidence, is not new, but the Trump era makes clear that the whole thing is just a choreographed show. Trump pretends to be president, Chuck Todd pretends to interview him, the White House Press Corps pretend to be combative with Sarah Sanders, Maggie Haberman pretends she hasn't been buddies with Trump for years, everyone pretends it's all a show and nothing really matters at all.
Must be nice for it all to just not matter.
...adding, often when talking politics and journalism "journalist" becomes shorthand for "political journalist." Look, the people doing deep investigative stuff, even about politicians, are not "political journalists." People whose anonymous sources are genuine whistleblowers and not just shittalkers or people laundering the official line through "anonymity" are not "political journalists."
Of course there are many good journalists. They just mostly aren't the types you see talking politics on the teevee inbetween writing up their text messages from someone whose name rhymes with "Hope Hicks."
The ones who think that what really matters is the Royal Court Drama. Those are the "political journalists."