A poll from the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Centerhas found that a majority of Americans are extremely worried or very concerned about bias in the media and the reporting of false or misleading information. Only 48% of Republicans or 34% of independents still receive their news from national news outlets and expressed the greatest trust of the media.
The poll shows that 47% of Americans have serious concern that news outlets would report information that has not been confirmed or verified, and 44% worry that accurate information will be presented in a way that favors one side or another.
For years, the journalists have sawed on the branch upon which they are sitting. Even National Public Radio, which received federal funding, is unrepentant in the face of criticism over its overt political bias.
Former New York Times writer (and now Howard University journalism professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones declared recently that “all journalism is activism.” Advocacy journalism is all the rage in journalism schools and on major media platforms.
A recent series of interviews with over 75 media leaders by Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, reaffirmed this shift. As Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, stated: “Objectivity has got to go.”
But that objective seems to depend heavily upon what ideology you are advocating.
The result is that the mainstream media is increasing speaking to itself and a dwindling number of viewers and readers. NPR is again a good example.
NPR’s audience has been declining. Indeed, that trend has been most pronounced since 2017. The company has also reported falling advertising revenue and, like many outlets, has made deep staff cuts to deal with budget shortfalls.
Yet, while tacking aggressively to the left and openly supporting narratives (including some false stories) from Democratic sources, NPR and its allies still expect citizens to subsidize its work. That includes roughly half of the country with viewpoints now effectively banished from its airwaves.
The result is that about half of Americans rely on social media for their primary source of news. That is why it is not surprising that the censorship of social media has been a priority among many liberal groups. The effort to is eliminate sources of information and regulate what citizens see and read.
Despite this effort, the trend is likely to continue. Recently at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the host Colin Jost Jost remarked how he could not believe the race was tied despite all of the bad coverage of Trump. At events like the dinner, there is disbelief that citizens are not just following their narrative and shaping of the news. The fact is that many are no longer listening or watching. The MSM is “playing to the house,” not to public at large.
So we are left with the variation of a common Zen-like question: if the media reports and no one is listening, does it still make a noise?