These days, everyone not named Donald Trump adores newspapers.

According to a 2018 YouGov survey, more people trust the information in their local newspaper than any other media source. At 74 percent, newspapers earned three times the trust of news from social media networks. Presidential candidate Andrew Yang wants to subsidize them with a $1 billion “Local Journalism Fund.” Apple rolled out a “News+” subscription service intended to distribute them digitally. Hollywood keeps making hagiographies for print journalism like The Post and Spotlight. The Washington Post spent a small fortune on a Super Bowl ad in February to pat itself on the back for a journalism job well-done along with its self-serious slogan: “Democracy dies in darkness.”

The appeal is understandable. The United States needs clear-eyed, fearless reporting that is skeptical of its leaders, especially with Trump declaring news sources that expose his endless lies or stray from his official narratives “enemies of the people” or “fake news.”