As the news media in the United States welcomes the new Biden administration, America’s trust in news media dops precipitously. According to the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer survey, 59 percent of respondents agreed that journalist purposely say things that are false or misleading in order to deceive people. Furthermore, the survey found that trust in traditional media has fallen eight points to a low of 53 percent. To add insult to injury Edelman did a “Post-U.S Election Flash Poll” and found a massive gap in trust between Biden and Trump voters with 57 percent of Biden voters trusting the media versus a mere 18 percent of Trump voters. Even more concerning is that this shows a 15-point decline since the election among Trump voters. As this all this happens in the background, the news media gleefully welcomes the Biden administration. Perhaps somewhat too gleefully as writer Jack Shafer for Politico pointed out in his January 21st article where he details some of the rather embarrassing and far too common displays of biased fawning by the mainstream media during Biden’s inauguration. It is difficult to see how the media’s treatment of Trump versus their treatment of Biden on January 20th and for the past year is not exacerbating the issue. Examples like this are not difficult to make and illustrate this point well. Combining this with Trump’s anti mainstream media rhetoric since the election, it is no wonder trust in the news media seems to be hitting an all time low.
Furthermore, the news media is not being shy about their intentions to continue their glowing reviews of the Biden administration. Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for The Washington Post, published an insightful article on January 21st about this very topic. Sullivan cautions the media to not become too adversarial against the Biden administration. She elaborates that it is tempting to do in order to seem as though the news media is providing balanced news coverage, but giving platform to “reality-denying” voices like senator “Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) or Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)” is a bridge too far for Sullivan. Sullivan states there should be a distinction drawn between “holding power to account and grandstanding.” It is important to consider here that Sullivan considers the “the vast and shameful overplaying of the Hillary Clinton email scandal during the 2016 campaign” to be grandstanding. If the warning by Sullivan is heeded by the news media, which seems already to be the case, it is doubtful that the news media is going to be able to gain back much ground with the half of the country that voted for Donald Trump. There is no issue with holding power to account and scrutinizing every aspect of a presidential administration or any other source of power whether political or private. However, it is an issue when biased reporting and deliberately gentle coverage is encouraged to replace the massive media onslaught of the past four years. The further public trust of media slips into oblivion the harder it is going to become to bring the U.S back together and repair the deep divisions that persist.
Follow my Twitter for weekly updates and alerts for new blog post.
I learned about the people's distrust of media in a mass media class I took a few years ago. We learned that most people receive their news from the mass media, however a high portion of those people also reported being distrustful of the media. Contradictions like this make no sense to me. The media is fueled by its viewers so if people stopped viewing it in favor of a more reputable source, it could not function anymore.
ReplyDelete