Good reporting or competitive positioning? Does it matter?

This is both quite compelling and quite interesting. From The Mueller Report Indicts the Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theory
The real Russiagate scandal is the damage it has done to our democratic system and media. by By Aaron Maté.

The article is well written and clearly argued but of greater import is who published it; The Nation, a pillar of the left for more than a century.

This is the second break in the left wall. First Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone (here and here) acknowledged that the whole Russian Conspiracy Theory was a sustained political exercise with little to no evidentiary base and now Aaron Maté and The Nation.

These are credible reporters bringing a truth long argued on the right to those on the left who have been primarily exposed only to the misreporting of the past couple of years. Both are concerned for the institutional integrity of America as well as the institutional integrity of the press.

I do not intend to undermine the courage and integrity of either of these reporters but it does force to the surface a different thought.

All complex, dynamic evolving systems have wheels within wheels. The Mueller Report can be viewed solely as a phenomenon related to the truth or untruth of a theory (Russian-Trump Collusion). That is certainly true as far as it goes.

However, there is a second circle turning. As both Maté and Taibbi both note, the Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theory has done a lot of damage to the mainstream media but it has done differential damage within the left leaning media (granted, that being the majority). The point is that the media is not only a purveyor of news (the Trump-Russia Conspiracy) but they are also competitors with one another and we cannot lose sight of that.

Anyone on the left, whether media platform or reporter, who can point to some sort of track record of independence and/or factual reporting over the past couple of years, has an opportunity to steal a march on their competitors. MSNBC, one of the most dedicated and unrelenting promoters of the Trump-Russia Collusion Theory, has seen a plunge in their viewership. Of course some of that decline is simply because the hope is gone, but almost certainly some of the decline is a result of viewers saying "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." CNN similarly has seen a sharp decline in viewership.

Is there a realignment of competitive positioning in the left side of the MSM? Too soon to tell but some of the surprising acknowledgements might be related to that dynamic.