The press must get across to American citizens the crucial importance of this election and the dangers of a Trump win. They don’t need to surrender their journalistic independence to do so or be “in the tank” for Biden or anyone else.
It’s now clearer than ever that Trump, if elected, will use the federal government to go after his political rivals and critics, even deploying the military toward that end. His allies are hatching plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on day one.
That’s an important factor, but another is the shift from print to the internet. With print you bought a paper then looked to see what was inside. You could know which papers had more reliable reporting. With the internet there’s no audience loyalty and most people are not paying, so they’re always desperate to get you to click on their article instead of someone else’s for the sake of the advertising views. So shock, outrage and clickbait win every time, not responsible reporting.