For almost all of the twentieth century, Americans had a pretty high regard for their news media, with the Gallup polling organization reporting that a consistent majority believed that they “reported the news fully, fairly and accurately.” This peaked in 1976 shortly after the era of Watergate and the Nixon resignation when trust in the news media hit a high of 72%.
Regrettably, things have changed significantly since that time, and especially since the advent of the Trump phenomenon, with the most recent polls indicating that only some 30% of Americans still trust the mass media when it comes to news reporting. The numbers are even worse for those professing to be Republican, as only 14% still hold on to that opinion.
There are a number of reasons for this disturbing trend. One has been the shift in the way most people get their news, from mainstream media to the Internet. As imperfect as mainstream news media may be at times, there are fairly rigorous journalistic standards in place, so that most of what you read in the press or hear on network news broadcasts can be trusted to be based on facts and corroborated evidence. There may be political biases and spin attached to the reporting, but credibility is a priority with these large media organizations, and one can in general trust in the truth of what is being reported.
The same cannot be said of much of what is put out on the Internet. Anyone can create a web page, blog or news feed with little regard as to facts, truth or ethical standards. There is no real oversight of these sources and no one to really hold them accountable. Often, it is very difficult to even find out who is behind the stories or material being published in the virtual universe. Needless to say, unscrupulous individuals, organizations and even nation states such as Russia have taken advantage of this to push their own agendas, biases or even hate material. Increasingly we are relying more on Internet sources such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and digital news portals to learn about what is going on in the world, and there is no real way of distinguishing between fact or fiction, news or propaganda.
Of course, Donald Trump’s well documented and self-serving attacks on mainstream media outlets as being full of “fake news” has also played a major role. Despite the fact that most of his attacks have had very little factual substance to them, a large number of disenchanted Americans have believed and swallowed his message uncritically. It hasn’t helped that there have been some instances of otherwise reputable media sources putting out anti-Trump articles that displayed more partisan bias than careful research. The highly polarized political environment in the U.S. has not spared the media in creating political narratives that tend to be more antagonistic than rational.
Nonetheless, the damage wrought to the credibility of news media as a whole is troubling. Even more disturbing is the fact that the President of the United States is waging a personal vendetta against members of the Fourth Estate that take him to task for his politics and his behavior. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment of the American Constitution, and it is one of the President’s foremost duties to uphold the Constitution. As Carl Bernstein, one of the Washington Post reporters that helped expose the Watergate scandal and the crimes of Richard Nixon recently stated – “Nixon and Watergate tried to make the conduct of the press the issue instead of the conduct of the president and the men around him. Donald Trump has gone even farther. He’s tried to undermine the credibility of the press as a national institution to the detriment of the country by these broad attacks on the press.”
Make no mistake, the existence of a strong, credible and unbiased press in all its media forms is essential in guaranteeing that all the other freedoms and rights that are shrined in the U.S. Constitution, or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, or any of the constitutions of other free and democratic countries, are maintained. One cannot have a healthy and free society without there being freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
It behooves all news media to resist any encroachment on their journalistic freedom and responsibility by whatever government is in power. Whenever or wherever governments control the media, or restrict or coerce their rights to freely publish, you no longer have a true democracy.
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