During the tranquil, contemplative days at the end of each year and the start of another, editorial writers and network commentators pause and take a long look at events shaping our lives.
Among all the bloviating about 2024 and trepidation or optimism about the coming year, there is one message the pundits and prognosticators should think about. But they probably won’t because it’s a lesson about ourselves.
For the news media, the most telling event of the campaign season came not at any political rally or candidate debate, but in a quick exchange between “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert and CNN news anchor Kaitlan Collins. It went like this:
Colbert: “I know you guys are objective over there, that you just report the news as it is …”
(The audience burst into loud, long laughter)
Collins: “Is that supposed to be a laugh line?”
Colbert: “It wasn’t supposed to be, but I guess it is!”
A few networks replayed the clip, yukking it up about how the audience flummoxed the comedian and the cable news newswoman momentarily. That totally missed the message.
The crowd was saying, by its derision, “Yeah, right, the media are fair and honest — uh-huh, now tell us another one …”
A year-end Gallup poll showed public confidence in the mass media at an all-time low, with only 31 percent of people surveyed expressing “a great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in news reporting. That’s only 1% down from a Gallup survey in 2023 but, for the third straight year, the segment of people expressing no trust at all stood at 36%. People in the other 33% grudgingly said they felt “not very much” confidence in the media.
That’s horrible.
Imagine if two-thirds of Americans thought automobiles were unsafe or feared the food supply was tainted. The murder of a health-care executive in New York revealed some public contempt for insurance companies, but at least corporations like those can do something to improve service and regain some regard.
News companies can’t go out and get nicer stories. News is probably the only business that has to keep the customer DIS-satisfied, at least sometimes. And we’ve got a returning president who never fails to tell audiences the networks and major papers peddle “fake news.”
Part of the reason for this climate is indicated by another recent national survey. The Pew Research Center conducted a long, detailed study of social media and polled citizens about where they get news.
It found that 21% of Americans regularly get information from “influencers” on social media, and the number rises to 37% among people under age 30. Eighty-five percent of influencers used X, formerly Twitter, while half had Instagram accounts and 44% were on YouTube.
They lean to the right — 27% Republican or pro-Trump, and 21% Democratic or pro-Kamala Harris.
Nearly two-thirds of influencers are men, Pew found, and perhaps most ominously, 77% had no news background or affiliation with any regular newsrooms.
There’s nothing illegal or wrong with that. We don’t license reporters in this country, and the First Amendment is for everybody. And it’s good to at least check out sources that are not what Gov. Ron DeSantis calls “corporate media.”
But your screen is a journalism free-fire zone. Anybody can post anything, for any reason, with no editorial responsibility or ethical standards. Everything you see on social media is there because somebody wants you to think one way or another about a person, thing or event.
At least with The New York Times or NBC, you know stories come from companies in the news business. They have advertisers and sponsors, but the commercials are clearly marked and separated from news content.
And that word, “content,” is another factor in the low regard for news. It’s a great leveler, a lowest common denominator. Here are stories about Ukraine, the latest on immigration policy and congressional actions affecting your job and family — alongside some stuff about the Kardashians, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and a deep think piece on whether Taylor Swift should marry that football player.
Hey, it’s all just content.
Like every business, media companies do consumer research and try to market to the widest audience. We’re not going to win back that scornful two-thirds of the public — especially not with Donald Trump in the White House — but it would be a worthy goal for 2025 if we could just get people to not laugh out loud when someone says a network is fair and objective.
Bill Cotterell is a retired Capitol reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at wrcott43@aol.com.
