For those of us who have an interest in media coverage, it's still a surprise when news stories get played so differently in the various mediums. Or not played at all. Something will lead Fox News for days and hardly get a mention on CNN. And vice versa. The national papers aren't much better. Remember The Washington Post's headlines about the "debunked" "conspiracy theory" that Tom Cotton kept repeating about the possible lab leak in Wuhan, China? It's not so debunked today. We give The Post credit for issuing a correction, even if it was a year later.
Speaking of Sen. Cotton, he wrote an op-ed for The New York Times last year about how to deal with rioters in the streets, and after its newsroom erupted in anger, the editorial page editor was forced to resign. Because the newsroom had a different opinion than an op-ed writer.
Is it any wonder more and more of the American people distrust the media these days?
Gallup is always asking fresh questions of people. This past week the popular polling company found that 36 percent of Americans trusted the American media. That was the second-lowest media score on record. Reuters recently issued the results of polling 92,000 people in 46 countries. The lowest trust of media in all of them was in the United States. Gallup reports that only 7 percent of adults in the United States said they have "a great deal" of trust and confidence in news reporting. And 29 percent said they had a "fair amount" of trust.
More than a third--34 percent--have "none at all."
What a difference a generation makes. Gallup reports that back during the depressing 1970s, during the Nixon- Ford-Carter years, not only did most people trust the mass media, but an overwhelming number of people trusted the mass media. The percentage of Americans who had faith in the three TV channels, local radio and the papers hovered between 68 and 72 percent. What we wouldn't give to have that now!
And it can't all be blamed on Fox News, as much as our friends on the left would like to. As Dr. Charles Krauthammer once put it, Fox News found a special niche of half the American population. No, this is a problem for the entirety of the mass media. As the Gallup poll found, trust has fallen "among all party groups."
(This mirrors Gallup's finding among Americans when asked if they trusted government. Most people trust their state governments. But when it comes to the feds, the judicial branch is the only part of the federal government that isn't underwater.)
What happens when a majority of a country says it doesn't trust its media? Why, the people might not trust what they hear about how to fight a pandemic, for starters. A lot of people might accuse news gatherers of lying about wars, elections, judicial nominees, the cost of spending bills, economics, the media . . . .
We remember an earlier poll by the very same people at Gallup--this one taken last year--that showed 83 percent of those surveyed said there is political bias in news coverage. Eighty-three percent. That may have something, or everything, to do with the number of people who distrust what they hear/read/see in the mass media. (People seem to report having more trust in local news, but even that support has softened over the years.)
So what's the answer? It would seem that going above and beyond the call of journalism duty to weed out opinion from news would be a start. These columns have sometimes bemoaned the lack of opinion on American opinion pages, but it needn't find its way over to the news pages to make up for it. Unfortunately, the best opinion writing in some American newspapers can be found in the front news sections. And of course the national TV networks seem to play to one political side or the other.
There's probably nothing to be done to smother or extinguish the opinion shows on television or radio. There's too much money in it. But newspapers of record could differentiate themselves. And earn back trust. Eventually.
There is a path to follow in that direction. See our "Statement of Core Values" on page 2A today. And every day.
Whether journalism regains trust or not, whether it deserves to be trusted or not, isn't just a problem for media companies and their long-term viability. If the watchdogs are ignored, who will wake when needed?
And if most Americans don't trust in the media, then how long until legislative restrictions make their way into law? And then will a lack of independence kill off any confidence left? It would be a much different country, that.
We are reminded of an old editorial page editor who once picked up the phone to hear a lady complain about all of his biases in his column. He thanked her. After all, he explained, it was his job to print his opinions and biases, and he was glad she noticed them. But all of that--like the stuff you're reading here--should be clearly labeled as opinion. And kept on opinion pages.
Otherwise, trust in the media will drop further. A scary thought this close to Halloween.
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