Trump is not responsible for what Christie does (not too obvious). Moreover, Trump is not responsible for the “coarsening of culture”. No single individual can be held accountable, to any extent, for the low (or coarse) level of public discourse so prevalent these days. However, the main stream Liberal press and the mass media in general can, in part, be held accountable for the decline in the nature and quality of public discourse. Take your article for example. It draws remote unrelated conclusions from dubious facts. It represents the kind of convoluted “reasoning” that has become so characteristic of those who write or report the news. 

Certainly the NPR recitation is subject to criticism and I hardly think that you or NPR can claim to know more about history than those who objected. Many would say, the blindness and “unbridled partisanship” is on the side of the Liberals that populate NPR.