So I too, am not sure when this “golden age” of “responsible” journalism was. Was it in the lifetimes of any of us?
Only so far as some of the old movies from the 40s depicted responsible journalism. Since then it is has been a death spin for honesty into political bias. Still, it was not even unbiased then. Many of the old gangs like the outfit in Chicago had their go to guys to paint over any bad pub.
IMHO the Herald could have been both heavily biased and far less biased than was the standard of the day. Thus, a breath of fresh air.But the devil is in the details. The big “detail” being what is and what is not “news.” Maybe the Herald of the day was less political in its choice of stories, but the axiom that “If it bleeds, it leads” is and always was true. And that readily translates into a bias against society - hence, for big government.
And such being the case, arguing that a negative perspective is “politically neutral” translates into cynicism.