This is why abusing the trust of the public in the pursuit of punishing or shaming political rivals is so corrosive. Many people have simply stopped listening

This is why abusing the trust of the public in the pursuit of punishing or shaming political rivals is so corrosive. Many people have simply stopped listening to the politicians of the opposite stripe and the main-stream media as authoritative sources because they feel that they're always hostile. For example when authoritative sounding talking heads appear on media and deride 40+% of the voting public as unworthy reprobates without being seriously challenged, a large number of people will completely shut off and turn toward less hostile voices who may or may not actually be worthy of trust themselves... That is a seriously bad thing when you have something important you need the public to rally around. The government and media should be rebuilding trust and making amends because if we can't trust what our leaders say, civil society simply can not do anything but crumble. That's not an easy thing to accomplish, but it could be done if approached in a genuine and humble manner. Unfortunately, there's no sign of that happening anywhere.