Distrust of the media is an excuse to disbelieve Roy Moore’s accusers

[Commentary] Some supporters of U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore have come right out and said they do not believe four women who claim the Alabama Republican pursued them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. But for Moore backers uncomfortable with the apparent insensitivity of directly challenging his accusers — one of whom says the candidate molested her when she was 14 — there is a more socially acceptable workaround: Doubt the media, instead. The goal of Moore's media boosters is to turn the allegations against him into a referendum on the credibility of the mainstream press — to give people with a conscience permission to vote for the former Alabama chief justice, anyway. No one is working harder to accomplish this mission than Stephen Bannon and Breitbart News. These criticisms of The Post's reporting, even if valid, would not address, let alone undermine, the substance of the accusations against Moore. But for Moore supporters who would prefer to dismiss the allegations without explicitly saying so, media bashing provides convenient cover.