Full Court Pressed

Besides the nearly 420,000 dead from COVID-19, the next major casualty of the Trump regime is trust in the press, as now a majority of American no longer trust news at all.

Trust in traditional media has declined to an all-time low, and many news professionals are determined to do something about it.

Why it matters: Faith in society's central institutions, especially in government and the media, is the glue that holds society together. That glue was visibly dissolving a decade ago, and has now, for many millions of Americans, disappeared entirely.

By the numbers: For the first time ever, fewer than half of all Americans have trust in traditional media, according to data from Edelman's annual trust barometer shared exclusively with Axios. Trust in social media has hit an all-time low of 27%. 56% of Americans agree with the statement that "Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations." 58% think that "most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public." 

When Edelman re-polled Americans after the election, the figures had deteriorated even further, with 57% of Democrats trusting the media and only 18% of Republicans.

 

Our media is now badly wounded, and time will tell if the wounds are fatal or not. But without trust in media, America will absolutely fall to the next autocratic monster, and it will never recover.

Felix Salmon goes on to suggest that America's CEOs, who do have a very high level of trust in the Edelman polling, are the key to saving the media.

How it works: Media outlets can continue to report reliable facts, but that won't turn the trend around on its own. What's needed is for trusted institutions to visibly embrace the news media. CEOs (a/k/a the fourth branch of government) are at or near the top of Edelman's list of trusted institutions. 

By the numbers: 61% of Trump voters say that they trust their employer's CEO. That compares to just 28% who trust government leaders, and a mere 21% who trust journalists.

The bottom line: CEOs have long put themselves forward as the people able to upgrade America's physical infrastructure. Now it's time for them to use the trust they've built up to help rebuild our civic infrastructure.

I'm not convinced that this is the answer, as I'd argue corporatization of the media is indeed the largest single problem in the media today. But Salmon is right that with four out of five Trump voters refusing to trust or listen to the media, reporting the facts won't work by itself.

What else needs to be done?

Reforming the corporate media and big tech, for starters, but that's a huge undertaking. But that needs to be part of Biden's plan.