Going Backwards

Things change slowly (and then sometimes all at once) so it is sometimes difficult to notice the changes, but it wasn't that long ago that "macaca" derailed George Allen's political career. And, sure, there were some conservative defenses of him, but for the most part elite opinion across the spectrum - which is reflected in Objective Journalism - accepted that he had crossed a line.

It is our supposed centrist institutions that turned.  Conservatives and bigots generally are what they are and  I don't think the New York Times (for example) can make them behave, but they have some role in defining what is acceptable.  Their role for the past several years has mostly been explaining that bigotry is good, akshually.

There is no need to argue that the New York Times (or The Atlantic, or whatever) is conservative, akshually.  No argument from me there! But they have a position in the discourse factory that is coded as "centrist" in a way that Fox News is not.