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When considering a career in journalism, one must ponder such questions as “Can I make a real difference?,” “How will I survive on such meager pay?,” and “What am I even doing with my life?,” but perhaps my most vexing concern is “How will I get through to those that simply don’t trust the media?”
Where We’re At
People trust the media less now than at any time in the last 40 years. In a way, it’s hard for me to conceptualize that people whose sole job is supposed to be informing the public and shedding light on injustices, corruption, and new discoveries are some of the least-trusted people in the world. But alas, a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2021 concluded that between 2016 and 2021, public trust in the media (in general) dropped from 76% to 58%. I know there are some bad actors in the field, but even if you could correct for that, 58% is shockingly low. So what gives?
How It Started
Looking further into the Pew data, Democrats’ trust in media has declined somewhat, but around 2016, Republican’s trust of the media plummeted from 70% to 35%. Trust had been eroding bit by bit since 9/11, when every newsroom in America devoted everything to the terrorist attacks. What followed however was a slew of decisions based on ratings rather than facts.
The coverage of the US invasion of Iraq didn’t do any favors for building trust in the media either, with a rather strong pro-invasion bias appearing in much of the media. Additionally, the massive scope of the new 24-hour news cycle was riddled with blunders such as Geraldo Rivera’s accidental disclosure of classified battle plans.
The drastic cut in trust around 2016 however is a direct result of Donald Trump’s continuous attacks on news organizations such as The New York Times and Washington Post. In addition to creating nicknames such as “The Failing New York Times,” he went so far as to call the news media “the enemy of the American people.”
Trump’s war on the media has always resonated with his supporters, who often see any criticism of Trump as unfair and politically motivated.
The Role of Misinformation
Arguably, Donald Trump’s political career began with an infamous bit of misinformation. As early as 2011, Donald Trump played a key role in spreading the misinformation that President Barack Obama was not born in the US. As more and more Republican voters bought into this conspiracy theory (which was repeatedly debunked), Trump saw a winning formula for getting the support he needed to secure the Republican nomination for 2016. What followed was a milieu of falsehoods such as:
or even
All of this is to say that Donald Trump did more to normalize conspiratorial thinking and distrust of experts (especially journalists) than anyone in modern history and the damage he’s done will take some time to repair.
Where We’re Headed
As we approach Donald Trump’s potential indictment this week, his supporters may soon be faced with yet another line they’ll have to cross: Once Trump is has been arrested, will they still support him? Inevitably, many will. He’s been impeached twice, banned from social media platforms, lost an election, incited a coup attempt, and was even dumped by longtime ally Fox News. Each time, he seems to bounce back, barely shedding any supporters.
What This All Means To Me
I recognize that it’s easy to vilify your political opponents in this increasingly polarized climate. It’s easy and even a little satisfying to fall into a pattern of simply trying to score points on the other side, and I admit I’ve been guilty of that on occasion (see @theothersean on Twitter).
That said, my relationship with Donald Trump’s assault on truth is not just one of mere disagreement. I am not blogging about the man because I didn’t vote for him or because I disagree with him on, well, just about everything.
I’m shining a light on him particularly because as a journalist, it is literally my job to clean up his mess.
Just like you said, media distrust isn’t anything particularly new… So why was it that the Trump “presidency” exacerbated the issue? Obviously, he made the biggest commotion about it. Was that really all it took for the masses to latch on?
In my opinion, it seems like right leaning media were really emboldened during the runup to the 2016 elections. I mean it was a perfect storm of Trump leading the charge and the “controversy” of Hillary Clinton’s emails.. As a counter to that left leaning media had to “retaliate”.
There wasn’t any sort of reporting as there wasn’t anything to report, so news agencies started editorializing current events instead of providing unbiased facts. Compound that with the fact that it seemed like even when things were proven to have happened (see: Mueller probe) nothing was even done about them.
What were people supposed to believe? Truly a disappointing time in our nation’s history.
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