The top-of-the-page headline featured this morning in major national newspapers was yesterday’s pardons by President Trump. Typical was the Washington Post’s:

Trump grants clemency to high profile names

Similarly, here is the AP story that made it into 2,300 news sources:

11 big and not-so-big names granted clemency by Trump

This morning’s Wheeling Intelligencer, including its editorial page, ignored the pardons and the larger corruption issue. That didn’t used to be case. Early in Trump’s presidency, our local “newspapers” led by its editor, Mike Myer, often predicted how Trump would soon clear Washington of its lobbyists, special interest pleaders, dishonest bureaucrats, and deceitful congressman. For example, here is Myer not long after Trump’s victory in 2016:

The people who voted for Trump, 60 million or so of them, did so because they had reached their limit with politics as usual. But, many decided, they would trust “the system” one more time. They would take one more chance that the old claim about their votes counting was more than hogwash. They would go with someone who would drain the swamp.

In 2017, Myer explained how the swamp creatures were fighting back:

It is no exaggeration to say that denizens of the swamp have been vicious in their attacks on Trump. Expect them to get worse, simply because the president and those behind him aren’t planning merely to change a policy here or a law there.

They’re talking about erasing a way of life for the establishment. Within the swamp, the fear is very real.

Later that year, Myer wondered whether Trump could accomplish it in just one term:

But whether the swamp can be drained from the outside is a question. In fact, it is so deep and wide that it probably is impossible for it to be dried out during one president’s term.

Trump has vowed to do the job, adding that he and he alone is capable of it.

But “swamp references” became infrequent as seemingly every Trump appointment came under scrutiny for conflicts of interests and other ethical violations. Yesterday, Trump pardoned eleven criminals in what was the biggest news story of the day and, not surprisingly, today's Intelligencer ignored it.

Myer concluded that post-election column I quoted earlier with a question:

How do you suppose those people would react if they learned they had been lied to again?

We may never know; Myer and his “newspapers” are doing their best to keep its readership as Trump likes them – uninformed.