My problem with journalists is they try too hard to report things "fairly."

Agreed. Setting aside the impossibility of unbiased reporting, the current habit of "repeat what both sides say, but don't fact-check anything" is appalling. If one side is outright lying, and you are reporting what they say but not the factual truth behind it, you're doing a disservice to all involved.

There is plenty of fact checking being done by journalists, but it has shifted to "fact check" stories that are published separately.

This is in part because it takes longer to fact check things, but there is tremendous competitive pressure to be first with news. So the on-scene reporters report what was said in near-real-time, and then the fact check reporters look through and report on how true it was.

Sure, but those "fact check" stories are useless. People see the first thing. They aren't likely to see the next.

I get the rationale, but it doesn't do what reporters need to actually do to be an effective part of the political process.

If we're being honest, it's overwhelmingly political pundits of a particular political persuasion who can't stand him. Hence the rise of thinly-veiled pundit arms like the Unskewed Polls nonsense.