The press is not the enemy of the people. It is the servant of the people.

At least it ought to be. On that score, the White House press corps is failing badly.

On Wednesday, national newsrooms became consumed with the details of a heated exchange between President Trump and CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta. The back-and-forth started off on a bad foot, and it grew only angrier when the president decided to move on to another reporter's questions and Acosta refused to turn over the microphone to a White House intern who had been instructed to move the press conference along.

“CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN,” the president said after Acosta eventually surrendered the microphone. “You’re a very rude person. The way you treat [White House Press Secretary] Sarah Huckabee is horrible. And the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn’t treat people that way.”

Later that same day, the White House took the additional step of suspending Acosta’s credentials. The rationale was that in resisting a White House intern’s attempts to wrest the microphone from his hands, Acosta had actually accosted her. National newsrooms were again consumed with the details of the ongoing, never-ending squabble between Trump and CNN.

[Read: Trump reignites feud with press after midterm elections]

Meanwhile, in the background, the press also had to find time to discuss the abrupt firing of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That reports of Sessions’ resignation shared the same space with a shouting match between Trump and a cable news reporter represents a failure by national media. These are not in any way equally important stories. They are not in the same order of magnitude of importance. But the press just can’t stop talking about itself.

For example, look to the statement CNN released immediately following the exchange between Trump and Acosta.

The president’s “ongoing attacks on the press have gone too far,” the network said, claiming the mantle of martyrdom. “They are not only dangerous, they are disturbingly un-American. While President Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it. A free press is vital to democracy, and we stand behind Jim Acosta and his fellow journalists everywhere.”

Statements like this are more fitting for an actual example of the powerful stifling of the free press and not merely a clash of two oversized egos.

Lost in the president’s fight with Acosta is the fact that the CNN reporter wasn’t so much asking questions as he was simply chastising the president’s anti-immigration rhetoric. This sort of behavior has become standard in White House briefings. Revealing and well-crafted inquiries about who is pulling the levers of power in the nation's capital often take a backseat to such inane questions as, “ How do you see your role as a moral leader?” This is a great thing to ponder for the opinion-side of the news industry, but it does very little insofar as shining a light on the institutions that run this nation. The general dulling of the White House press corps' edge is a thing decades in making. But it certainly seems like the problem has gotten far worse far faster under Trump.

Indeed, so much of what passes today as tough and hard-hitting White House reporting is little more than journalists taking turns denouncing the administration and then the covering the inevitable angry reaction. So much of the worrying about the Trump administration’s treatment of the press is little more than posturing meant to impress audiences and peers.

We need a news media that cares about exposing the powerful and holding them to account. We don’t need a national press that is into strutting for cameras and covering itself. But because White House press conferences are roughly 25 percent performative acts of resistance, navel-gazing is exactly what we’re getting. Meanwhile, the amount of time dedicated to bigger, far more important stories is jeopardized constantly by the press' high opinion of itself.

Trump is more than happy to have the White House press corps as a foil. Its weakness for narcissism helps distract from his failures and missteps. Reporters should stop obliging him.