Here's another perspective on the issue, very consistent with Marley's excellent points written by the psychiatrist who was chairman of the task force that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (D.S.M.-IV). It appears to have been written in direct response to the letter cited above.
ETA: Link
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0.....-state.htm
The gist:
"Bad behavior is rarely a sign of mental illness, and the mentally ill behave badly only rarely. Psychiatric name-calling is a misguided way of countering Mr. Trump’s attack on democracy. He can, and should, be appropriately denounced for his ignorance, incompetence, impulsivity and pursuit of dictatorial powers."
racheylou, I am 100% with you on concerns about the numbers of corrections we are seeing even from the most reputable news sources. I also feel that compulsion to go back and check because so often the story changes.
JAileen, speaking for myself, when I see that a journalist hasn't initially reported accurately on an easily verifiable fact, it really makes me wonder how much care they are taking with regard to the parts of their stories that require more judgment. Like, how much care are they taking to vet the inside sources they are relying on? And are they making other mistakes that are never corrected.
Like racheylou's baking, some types of work require absolute precision and attention to detail. In my mind, journalism is absolutely one of those endeavors. (So is running the government of the United States, but that is a conversation for a different time.)