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Back in my high school years, I actually believed journalists were smart.

We were all bombarded with propaganda to that effect. In fact the propaganda to the effect that “journalists are objective” is IMHO precisely the fruit of a “conspiracy against the public” of the sort which Adam Smith warned people about:
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)
Journalists “meet together” continuously - not merely by casual contact or by reading each other’s reports but, crucially, via the virtual meeting which is the Associated Press “wire.” They explicitly agree on certain things via the Associated Press Stylebook, which is a form of Newspeak dictionary, and tacitly or explicitly they agree to promote the fiction that journalists are objective (no matter how tendentious they actually may be).

The natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing. The man whom we believe is necessarily, in the things concerning which we believe him, our leader and director, and we look up to him with a certain degree of esteem and respect. But as from admiring other people we come to wish to be admired ourselves; so from being led and directed by other people we learn to wish to become ourselves leaders and directors . . .
The desire of being believed, the desire of persuading, of leading and directing other people, seems to be one of the strongest of all our natural desires. - Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
Naturally we are bombarded with propaganda - and naturally, unfortunately, we have a tendency to fall for it.
We come to FR to pool our “incredulity” as self-protection.