As the democratic world reeled over the Supreme Court-driven loss of abortion rights in the US, old media stumbled. Keep your head down, they instructed their reporters -- we’re going to both-sides our way through this. 

More evidence, if it was needed, that traditional media lacks the confidence to confront the crisis of democracy and human rights in Australia and the US driven by increasingly assertive, hard-nosed conservatives.

Coming so soon after Australia’s media failings in the recent election, it’s a reminder that the journalism emergency is global -- or at least Anglosphere wide.