Why Do So Many Americans Mistrust the Media? [u]

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Larry

[ Updated Nov. 14, 2016 with more thoughts after reading initial comments.]

There were two themes that struck me forcefully from our recent election: First, was the vast number of people who no longer trust the media. Second, that actual facts are not as important as our belief in what the facts “should” be.

Seeing as the media industry is where we all work, this lack of respect has a direct impact on what we are doing and how it is perceived.

This lack of trust seems to me to reflect the continuous blurring of lines between news to documentaries to docu-dramas to dramas. The boundaries between fact and fiction are almost non-existent.

It also seems that the majority of Americans don’t fact-check what they see and hear. Just the opposite, there seems to be a willing acceptance that what we see and hear is, by default, accurate. The truth is what we believe it to be.

Hollywood has long said that viewers are clearly able to distinguish between the fanciful entertainment it creates and the real-world which viewers inhabit when they are not watching movies. I think that statement has been proved false, if it was ever true, by the amount of time, money and intellectual resources put into television commercials and political ads, all designed to persuade, if not purposefully mislead.

Are movies any less persuasive or compelling than a commercial? Does not the reality within a movie extend into the real world? If not, why did Universal build “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter?” Or the incredible growth of cosplay, superheros, and Comic-Con. This leads directly into: “If it is true in a movie, it must be true in the real-world.”

What troubles me the most, I think, is that disrespect for the media translates into disrespect for what we do. We are already pressed with decreased budgets and fewer clients. When you combine that with diminishing concern about craft or veracity, you end up with a media environment that rewards sensationalism and dramatic falsehoods; all designed to attract the largest audience.

“Truth” no longer matters, its all about attracting eyeballs and sparking controversy. And its not “our” fault if people believe the false “truth” we are selling. We’re just doing what our clients tell us to do.

This is not a good place for us. Its a place that rewards low-budgets and bottom-feeder scripts. Worse, it means that whatever we create is not respected. We aren’t changing the conversation, we are reinforcing each other’s worst fears.

This descent into darkness did not occur quickly. We each contributed by decisions that seemed good at the time. Bigger audiences are generally a good thing. But something got lost as we chased larger audiences and bigger buzz. We lost our way and we lost our respect.

Its going to take us a while to get out of here. And, I suspect, it won’t be easy.

UPDATE: Nov. 14, 2016

After reading many of these comments, I realize that I am less interested in specific candidates and more interested in why fact-checking was not valued? As one commenter wrote, the ability of the Internet to invent its own facts is very scary. Why have accuracy and truthfulness fallen into disfavor? What are the ramifications when we can make up facts to suit our world-view?

I will be moderating comments going forward which focus principally on candidates.

As always, I’m interested in your comments.

30 Responses to Why Do So Many Americans Mistrust the Media? [u]

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Bob Cole says:

November 21, 2016 at 6:42 am

Agree about some of the criticism of the media for simply reporting what Trump says. What I’m talking about is more subtle – it’s a bias that puts blinders on the eyes of the reporters so that they can’t see what’s right in front of them. Where were the reports, before the election, that are coming out after? e.g. the enthusiasm at Trump rallies vs. Hillary’s? The indifference in the inner city? The evangelicals who rallied behind the non-church-goer serial adulterer? As a HC voter, I say to the NYT “Oh, NOW you tell me.”

re the photos: I get the sarcasm, and it’s a pretty good example of just what I’m complaining about in the media. You dismiss the reports of how the meeting actually went, with your preconception of how it should have gone. That’s exactly what the NYT did with its election coverage, until it was too late.

The electoral result is, at least in part, on the media. Clearly, they did not get the story right this year. I think the SNL skit on the Brooklyn Bubble captured the problem perfectly.
Billy Walker says:

November 21, 2016 at 6:52 am

This response may be rude but I do believe it is truthful.

You have stuff people print on the internet which no one has vetted including the poster. If you’re going to post so-called news and/or information on the ‘net you become a defacto publisher. You have a responsibility to vet your story and verify the accuracy of the story prior to publishing it on your own.

Just yesterday I read a story on PetaPixel I think it was about an individual who was convinced he had found a parking location for a number of buses that had supposedly bused in anti-Trump protesters. Of course, he never bothered to verify the accuracy of his thoughts until after the fact. Turned out he was wrong.

There’s a level of ignorance going on here. You have what amounts to various people, we’ll call them ignorant people, who automatically believe what they read with what appears to be zero foresight and fact checking going on. How someone automatically believes what he/she reads is beyond me but it appears to be going on in incredibly large numbers. We’re speaking of adults here. It’s amazing.

There is simply no excuse to automatically believe anything you read. There is always more than 1 side to a story. An intelligent individual, should they have an interest in the subject matter, will check out various sources in an attempt to determine the accuracy of any story.

Judging by the garbage that goes on with the internet I seriously doubt the level of intelligence and/or common sense of much of the world’s population. A fixation on Kim Kardashian just isn’t going to do much for anyone’s life. And, the network news turning into an entertainment presentation of sorts shows the desire for so many to head towards the low end of the gene pool.
Ralph Davis says:

November 21, 2016 at 8:35 am

Very insightful responses. It gives me hope! Here’s my 2 cents:

The news medias have always fronted the image of respectable truth telling while breaking every 10-15 minutes to utter BS commercials. It is deeply embedded in our subconscious that to catch our dinner we have to be deceitful. Sneak up on it and play it for a fool.

That being said have we ever produced a video story that was the complete truth?
The Machiavellian persuasions have blithely engaged this tactic as a truth and I can’t think of a program I’ve produced that the clients didn’t sit there and suggest subtle distortions or opaque details to sell their product or idea.

The tactic the enlightened members of our society have engaged to tell stories is to be honest about their opinions. To say “I believe this fact but there is reason to doubt” is honest. Without that clarifier the story is suspect.

We as westerners are so used to commercial stories that we take it for granted that story telling is a throw away sport. Catch the fish anyway you can but don’t expect the lure to be the truth. It is discarded as a subterfuge anyway.

To change this understanding takes the courage of convictions in the face of economic loss. That’s a delicate path to tread. Can we bet our businesses on the consumer rallying to real truth telling stories? Don’t they want to be fooled anyway?
Will the better angels of our natures rise to the occasion? Is truth the better diet for us than a diet of deceit?
Fred H Nesbitt JR says:

November 21, 2016 at 8:47 am

Since the ‘citizen’s-united ruling tons of money has fueled this recent 2 year long KK Klown circus…

The media has always pulled US American’s around by the short hairs and since the repeal of the FCC’s Equal Time Fairness Doctrine 30+ years ago…this nazi HATE propaganda has been spoon fed to most rural American mushrooms, 24/7.

Now…many o’ US will soon git ta enjoy the amenities of a modern Re-Education Camp…with food, housing & medical care!

Butt remember…Work Will Set You Free !!!
Robin Harris says:

November 21, 2016 at 11:28 am

This is nothing new. There is a persistent strain in the American psyche that deals with the world through conspiracy theories, demonization, and denial. 60 years ago those folks were claiming that President Eisenhower was a conscious Communist agent.

Today’s basic problem is that Google and Facebook are advertising companies. So are newspapers, but they have a tradition of editorial independence from advertisers. FB & Google don’t, and they really let us down.

For more perspective, read “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” by Yale historian Richard Hofstedter, available at http://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/. The difference now, of course, is that we’ve elected a know-nothing subscriber to many of these conspiracy theories.
David Baird says:

November 21, 2016 at 12:25 pm

Larry has asked us to focus on the question of mistrust of the media and not the candidates. Yet we should acknowledge one of the candidates vocally and relentlessly stoked that mistrust by calling it “dishonest” and “unfair” without actually refuting these allegations with facts. Indeed, when the press reported that groups of Muslims did not celebrate 9/11 in New Jersey, as the candidate had said, the candidate didn’t issue a correction. Instead he mocked the reporter who’s story become the basis for that internet distortion. His supporters didn’t seem to mind either that the incident didn’t happen, that he didn’t take it back, or that he mocked a person with a disability.
Your criticism seems to be that the press failed to report the enthusiasm and emotions of his supporters. There were reports of his rallies and interviews with supporters. If the people in the media had a blind spot, it would be thinking that most people would see this level of dishonesty and pettiness as disqualifying for the office of President. It turns out they were right, but not by much. It turns out that more of the ones that didn’t lived in states who’s voters are over-represented in the Electoral College. The result is that we will have a President willing to spread untruths and condemn the press for pointing out when he’s wrong. The media is in for some difficult times.

Perhaps my comment on the photos was cynical. There were no doubt many emotions during the meeting of the two men. I look forward to the future play. Neither of us were there so we will not know the facts. The premise that one photo represents an event is not valid. I should have said as much the first time.
Billy Walker says:

November 22, 2016 at 5:16 am

The latest Fake News… a pizza joint by the name of Comet Ping Pong in Washington DC receiving death threats for supposedly child trafficking and helped by Hillary Clinton in order to do so.

People that buy into this garbage are even more ignorant that I thought. Very sad.
Pat Paquette says:

November 22, 2016 at 10:52 am

Larry, people don’t trust the media anymore because they are no longer trustworthy. When I was in journalism school in the 1980s, there was still some semblance of the Fourth Estate. That’s not to say that the major media weren’t biased – Debbie Wolfe is right that newspapers throughout history have had a slant. But you at least could count on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post (mostly) to be fair and accurate. There also was PBS and NPR.

There is no one single factor to blame, but the two major contributors were the rise of the Internet and 9/11, both of which happened in pretty much the same time period. As Debbie mentioned, the Internet cheapened the news. It no longer was news and information, but “content.”

After 9/11, the media didn’t dare go too far in questioning the administration. When they did, their audiences accused them of endangering national security. But most didn’t. To the contrary, they cooperated, and from there it was a short jump to becoming virtual mouthpieces for the government. In its coverage of the runup to the Iraq War, The New York Times essentially colluded in convincing the public that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The paper still hasn’t recovered from the damage to its credibility, and there have been other incidents since then. Most people I know no longer consider the NYT a reliable source of information.

While all that was going on, the media were consolidating into mega-corporations that were part of the power structure that many Americans don’t trust. Enterprising journalists, some disillusioned themselves, started independent news sites in an attempt to report what the “MSM” either was ignoring or slanting. With the growth of the Internet and user-friendly blogging platforms such as Blogger and WordPress, suddenly anyone could have a “news” blog. That, in turn, opened a huge door for propaganda from every quarter, along with armies of paid trolls to make it look real.

People don’t know who to believe or who to trust, so in the end they trust the sources that affirm their own point of view. This truly is a crisis.
Dan Wright says:

November 22, 2016 at 11:26 am

It’s a fact people are feed up with mainstream Media BIG Government and BIG Corporations.

In my opinion the Media and the Government need to move more toward the Center. Media needs to report the News and a lot less bias opinion. Government, including State, Local needs to stop picking and choosing what laws they will obey. if the laws need changed then change them.

Much of the Internet is a cesspool of garbage which as mentioned above is not to be taken seriously.

I guess that covers it 🙂
latvis says:

December 22, 2016 at 3:51 pm

Wildly late…..but…..it’s all about economics……..

24 hour news channels require viewers (i.e., ratings) to survive.

NOT flourish, to SURVIVE……….As do newspapers and any other entity that proposes to make a ‘living’ from reporting the ‘news’. The ONLY way to do so is to sensationalize, tease and otherwise turn the reality of life into a reality show.

The most important thing the ‘media’ needs to take away from this horrid campaign and its bizarre outcome is the knowledge that because of THEM we elected a former host of a reality show…….how’s that for a wake-up call?