"Complicating the effort further is the media’s own sense of itself. So much of what passes for political news — grading the candidates on how good they are at performing for the media, reporters on the campaign trail talking to 'real' people, media-sponsored public opinion surveys and the thousands of polling stories they generate — is the media positioning itself as gatekeeper between candidate and public."
~ David Kurtz
https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/how-to-process-bidens-debate-disaster