"The numbers are in: Trust in the media has collapsed to single digits among Republicans," tweets @NRA. "Why? Because the public sees through the bias. When it comes to guns, the mainstream media doesn't report - it campaigns."

This may hit home for a lot of folks. The mainstream media may not have the power lock hold on the masses as it might have had in the past. Horrific consequences can result from organizations and power structures taking power that they have no business taking; from leading people astray; and from perverting what should be informational reporting into agenda-driven messaging. It is so self-serving. You would think they might stop it after a while. Perhaps it is arrogance, why they do that.

Press organizations that report accurately and otherwise do their jobs well should be rewarded. That may not be the organization that has the biggest reach; or the one that entices the most consumers through whatever means to consume its service; or the one that has the finest technology, equipment, and presentation.

Three things ring true about this. One, many letter-salad news organizations have failed their consumer base. Two, Americans continue to evolve with respect to news consumption. Three, social media and its proxies remain convenient and easily available sources of information.

The paramount importance of press accuracy cannot be understated, nor can the destructive power of press bias. A news report should attest to a certain set of facts, informing about them and marking a historical record of them. While opinion makers can appropriately insert bias into commentary and editorializing, the leaven of bias should not be found in news reporting. Problems arise when the press seeks to find an outcome and dig up some facts that seem to support it, rather than finding facts and making right judgments about what outcome they support. Reputational damage has been incurred by some mainstream media platforms due to the perception of substandard media practices. That damage does not heal overnight.

Meanwhile, media consumers seem to be increasingly finding social media and its proxies to be the modes of choice for news, information, and education. One reason for this could be the convenience and ease of availability they offer.

One of the riches of the United States lies in having a free press. It not only proves to be necessary, but being necessary, it becomes beneficial. It serves as a check on power and shines a light into places that are hard for many to reach. But it does have problems from time to time, the perception of bias being one.

Just as constructive speech swallows destructive speech, an accurate press renders impotent purveyors of inaccuracy and falsehood. Information-controlling regimes do not share the advantage of a free press. We as a nation allow the whole truth, and as unpleasant as that sometimes may be, in so doing, little darkness remains for inaccuracy and falsehood.