This columnist is coming across as an eighteenth century lord of the manor insisting that the peasants trust their betters to run things for them.  But the dumb masses now as then are smart enough to realize that the ruling class doesn't always have their best interests in mind.  None of this of course proves that populist ideas are right simply because they are anti-elitist.  But if the universities and mainstream media want to win back the trust of the larger public, they have to earn this trust and not simply demand it because they are "authorities."