Americans don’t trust the media, and for good reason, by Sharyl Attkinson.
Trust in the mass media is at an all-time low. Two-thirds of Americans believe the mainstream press publishes fake news. …
We have only ourselves to blame.
Firewalls that once strictly separated news from opinion have been replaced by hopelessly blurred lines. Once-forbidden practices such as editorializing within straight news reports, and the inclusion of opinions as if fact, are not only tolerated; they’re encouraged. …
Formerly well-respected news organizations and experienced national journalists are making the sorts of mistakes that aren’t tolerated in journalism schools. When their mistakes are corrected at all, it’s with little seeming regret. And the corrections never garner a circulation as wide as the original salacious narrative.
Special interests understand this, as they peddle tasty bites of scandalous, dubious information, hoping one major news organization or popular blog will bite. …
Colleagues cheer on the editorializing and misreporting, and management rewards it. …
It was equal parts predictable and inevitable. For a decade or more, we’ve increasingly invited corporate and political interests into our newsrooms. We plaster the news with pundits without fully disclosing their paid interests, as they deliver talking points du jour that are neither spontaneous nor insightful — but always on message. …
Many Americans are eagerly watching the devolution of traditional news with relish because they agree with the prevailing narratives, whether based on true facts or imagined fiction.
But others are growing skeptical of nearly every news item they see or read. Some have stopped consuming news altogether. I think there are millions of people, particularly those who live outside of Washington, D.C., New York City and Los Angeles, who would like their news straight up: News that they don’t have to discount because they’re placing odds on the political and corporate interests of the reporters. Yet, we don’t hear these desires because we’re trapped in an echo chamber of our own creation.
In Australia the media is less diverse and dominated by the ABC, so the situation is worse. Australians are even more misinformed, only given the PC fantasy view.
