Parshall Partners

The Mess of American Media

         Helen Thomas, a long serving member of the White House press corps, once famously said, “We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers.”  That used to be the standard for American journalism but things are now drastically different.

         Gallup has been asking people in this country about their opinions on the media for some time.  Their latest numbers reveal a major concern.  Just 34% of those polled by Gallup trust in the mass media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly".  That is just 2 points higher than the lowest number every reported back in 2016 during the presidential election.

         According to Gallup:

“Just 7% of Americans have "a great deal" of trust and confidence in the media, and 27% have "a fair amount." Meanwhile, 28% of U.S. adults say they do not have very much confidence and 38% have none at all in newspapers, TV and radio. Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.”

         Gallup hasn’t seen a majority level of Americas who trust the media since 2003. In fact, the public’s confidence in the media has averaged 42% since 2004.

         It comes as no surprise that there is a major partisan divide on this issue.  Only 14% of Republicans and 27% of Independents say they have a great deal of confidence in the press while 70% of Democrats trust the media.  Several studies show that the majority of those who work in the media align themselves with the policy positions supported by Democrats, hence the reporting would garner more support from those who share that particular worldview.

         Gallup notes that the erosion of trust shows no signs of abating.  They state:

Americans' confidence in the media has been anemic for nearly two decades, and Gallup's latest findings further document that distrust. The current level of public trust in the media's full, fair and accurate reporting of the news is the second lowest on record. This new confidence reading follows Gallup's historically low confidence in both TV news and newspapers in June and a new low in December's annual rating of the honesty and ethics of television reporters. Newspaper reporters received similarly low ratings in the same poll.

         Malcolm Muggeridge was a British journalist who leaned toward Communism until he saw its deadly outcomes.  He converted to Christianity and wrote powerfully of his love of Jesus.  He once said of the press, "The media today—press, television, and radio—are largely in the hands of those who favor the present Gadarene slide into decadence and Godlessness."

         He is right.  The bias, the subjectivity and often times mean-spirited reporting of the media today reveals that journalism has, in the words of Helen Thomas, abandoned seeking the Truth.

         Those are my thoughts.  I’m Janet Parshall.