Today In Watching The Media Burn: Vox Populi, Vox Adult Daycare

So The New York Times has finally decided to eliminate the useless-appendage position of Public Editor, because money doesn't grow on trees, people, and Ross Douthat/David Brooks/Maureen Dowd/Tom Friedman/Bret Stephens ain't gonna work for tip-jar leftovers.

From HuffPo:

The New York Times Is Eliminating The Public Editor Role

The accountability position was created in the wake of a 2003 plagiarism scandal.

The New York Times is eliminating the position of public editor, an accountability role the paper created in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal, according to sources familiar with the decision.

Elizabeth Spayd, a former Washington Post managing editor who was named the paper’s sixth public editor last year, was expected to remain in the position until summer 2018.

Spayd did not respond to requests for comment. A Times spokesperson declined to comment...

Mind you, in theory a Public Editor position at the Times could have been invaluable if it had ever bravely stood for, well, anything. But all it ever really amounted to was a post-Jason-Blair-CYA sop thrown to the stakeholders that quickly devolved into another bastion of lazy, toxic Both Siderism.  And in a timorous media culture that prizes appeasing and mollifying over provoking and engaging, the job of doing nothing of any importance can be safely divvied up among the remaining staff.

And speaking of craven appeasement...

From the Washington Post:

USAA dropped ‘Hannity’ amid outcry over conspiracy theory coverage. Now it’s coming back.

When Fox News host Sean Hannity came under fire earlier this month for peddling a discredited conspiracy theory about the killing of a Democratic National Committee staffer, more than a half-dozen advertisers announced they were pulling commercials from his prime-time show.

USAA was among them. The company, which provides financial services to members of the military, said it was withdrawing from several “opinion-based shows,” including Hannity’s program and its counterparts on MSNBC and CNN.

The move apparently didn’t sit well with USAA customers, some of whom accused the company of capitulating to Hannity’s critics...

Now, USAA is backpedaling. In a statement Tuesday, the company said it would resume advertising on “Hannity,” as well as “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on MSNBC and “The Lead with Jake Tapper” on CNN...

And the money-shot? (emphasis added)

USAA said it plans to reinstate all the previously removed ads later this week while it reviews its advertising policy. The company added that it never sought to support one set of views over another.

Never getting within a thousand miles of supporting one set of views over another no matter how openly fraudulent, destructive and traitorously unAmerican one of those sets of values may be is the rock on which the media's High and Holy Church of Both Siderism is built.

And now you know why.

It's also sad that USAA -- a company whose motto is "We Proudly Serve Military Members and Their Families" -- cannot summon the collective courage to stand against a wolf-in-the-fold domestic enemy like Hannity.

But, once again, money.