Biden has done a remarkable job staying out of sight from the press. And the dominant media has done a spectacularly poor job of reporting on him or Vice President Kamala Harris. It seems inconceivable that Americans still do not know when Biden’s cognitive decline became apparent, his current level of functioning, and when the vice president was aware of his issues with the president’s mental acuity.

The news media, mass media, dominant media, or legacy media, pick your preferred term, has destroyed its own credibility over the last four years. They have no one to blame but themselves (and maybe Biden) for the loss of trust by the American people.

By “the media,” I am referring to journalistic endeavors, publications and media organizations which have members in the White House press corps or a Washington bureau.

Yascha Mounk, German-American political scientist, author, and freelance journalist, had this nugget embedded in a recent Substack newsletter: “Various European diplomats have told me in the last weeks that it was well-known in European capitals that Joe Biden was suffering from significant mental decline years ago, because he would show up to meetings not knowing where he was, because he would repeat himself in the same meeting two or three times until he was ushered away by some of his staff.”

Anyone who watched Biden’s debate debacle on June 27 would not second-guess Mounk’s reporting. But for those who need a reminder, Biden appeared confused, was inarticulate and rambled and kept looking blankly either down or off to the side of the debate stage.

I have long been critical of Donald Trump and believe he deserves the scrutiny he receives. But while journalists have appeared to crawl over broken glass to investigate and report negatively on Trump, there has been no such standard for them to do the same with Biden.

There has been little reporting on Biden’s infirmity since he left the presidential race after that fateful debate. Instead, we get trickles of information like the above from Mounk and from actors like George Clooney.

Clooney, who hosted a fundraiser for Biden on June 15, said that Biden “was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

So it should come as no surprise that for the third consecutive year, Gallup is reporting that more U.S. adults (36%) have no trust at all in the media and another 33% express “not very much” confidence.

Only 31% of respondents said they have “a great deal” (8%) or “fair amount” (23%) of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” which is 1 percentage point below the prior record low of 32% recorded last year and in 2016.

The media is not the only one to blame here. Biden’s post-pardon actions show the other side of this story and the challenges facing the press who try their level best on covering him.

Immediately after releasing his statement and pardon for Hunter, Biden scooted off on Air Force One and flew for his final foreign trip of his presidency, to Angola, avoiding public scrutiny not only for issuing the pardon but also for lying to the American people when he previously said, repeatedly, that he wouldn’t do it in the first place.

As of this writing, Biden has not spoken publicly about his controversial decision. He did not answer reporters’ questions on the pardon during a refueling stop in West Africa on Monday. From the podium in the West Wing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questions about the pardon mostly by repeating Biden’s own earlier statement on the issue.

When Harris was asked about Biden’s mental acuity by the press during her presidential campaign, her answers were less than reassuring.

NBC News’ Hallie Jackson asked Harris: “Can you say that you were honest with the American people about what you saw in those moments with President Biden, as you were with him again and again repeatedly in that time?”

Harris responded: “Of course. Joe Biden is an extremely accomplished, experienced and capable in every way that anyone would want if they’re president.”

If trust is to be regained, the Fourth Estate of our democracy needs to return to their roots and stop acting as an arm to the Democratic Party. Whether that was their intention or not, it has become the dominant perception. Shining a light on elected officials, no matter what their party, would be a good start.