The media think they influence the election results, but in this case it didn't really happen. Both parties' nominees won their nominations by significant margins. Trump won the general election despite the media being united against him. The media are now asking themselves "What could we have done to prevent this?" (See for example Chuck Todd's article at NBCnews.com yesterday, appointing partial "blame" for the outcome to the media.) This misses the point. The media shouldn't be trying to influence the outcome, except in a couple of ways: they should make it their mission that people be as informed as possible, and that that information be true. Their loyalty to a left-wing political ideology has come before both of those things, which is why their credibility is in the dumps.