One in four Americans claim they trust the media, But only one in 14 have confidence in the news they’re being fed.
Our local ABC outlet is probably in decent shape (sorta), thanks to the democrat fanbase. but amongst Conservative watchers in New Hampshire, it seems to be commonly accepted that,
- Local management has decided to move its Overton Window leftward
- Hearst corporate has mandated that reporting, when possible, be “non-objective”
In the 20 years where I’ve been politically aware and studying how the media reports the news of the day, it’s clear that, like the era of only three network news channels, much of the media still report the same stories in the same way.
When some new event threatens their status quo reporting, all of the Dems, and many of the media lapdogs, revert to similar talking points – many word for word. But the chickens have come home to roost for the TV Media that leans Lefty (reformatted, emphasis mine):
In a national survey, conducted December 2-18, 2024, Gallup asked respondents to “rate the honesty and ethical standards” of 23 professions. “TV reporter” was one of just three professions distrusted by a majority of Americans.
- Only 13%, or about one in eight, rate the trustworthiness of TV reporters as either “high” or “very high”.
- More than four times as many (55%) think it’s “low” or “very low” (55%).
- “TV reporters, whose nine-point slide since the 2000s reflects the decline in Americans’ broader confidence in the news media,”
- …trust in mass media hit a record low for the third straight year in 2024, as Gallup’s annual survey on trust found that:
- less than a third of Americans (31%) say they believe what they’re being told by the media,
- …69% who say they don’t, including 36% who have no trust at all.
- “Americans are overstating their trust in the media. Whereas 24% of people publicly agree they trust the media to tell the truth, in private only 7% truly believe it.”
…“Results from every generation reveal a double-digit gap between what people are willing to say publicly and what they privately think.”
While the media still look down their Collectivist noses at “citizen journalists, their industry has been democratized right out from underneath them via cheap technology (blogs, cheap but decent still & video cameras, platforms, and willing to hold all that). They are no longer “the Gatekeepers” and are frustrated over this.
They are also starting to have a cow that the incoming Trump Administration is about to pick up the vaunted White House press/briefing room and shake it like a rag doll (Hi, Karoline Leavitt – shake it up REAL good!) in that bloggers and influencers, that now have far more reach than the Old Guard Gatekeepers, are going to start warming those seats instead.
The formerly “entitled” will realize they, too, serve at the pleasure of the President. And it may be a lot more fun to see how the comments and questions will change from the newcomers both in type and in tone. But back to WMUR – will they adjust to this environment?
Warfare, as seen in the Russia/Ukraine theater, has changed radically, mainly from the deployment of cheap and repurposed drones and quads. And from the Ukrainians, coming up with novel uses for them alongside with new tactics that the lumbering Russian machine hasn’t expected.
The new media environment resembles this as well. How will WMUR adapt? How long will it take for them to see that Objectivity is king – or will it at least admit that they’ve moved to only the Narrative form when opinion and strict reporting are now intertwined…
…regardless of what their audience wants?