Trust Issues: The State of the Media — Transcript

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1. 0:00As Americans, there is a religious war  going on in this country. It is a cultural
2. 0:07war as critical to the kind of nation we  shall be as the Cold War itself. For this
3. 0:14war is for the soul of America. And in  that struggle for the soul of America,
4. 0:20Clinton and Clinton are on the other side.  And George Bush is on our side. [Music] On
5. 0:38what level is there an argument? Well, there  is a policy which I think is a destructive
6. 0:47and devastating policy. It's continuing and  the policy, the continuation of the policy is
7. 0:55to some extent based on the fact of public apathy  or public acceptance. Hence there still is the
8. 1:00necessity to convince people that they should  act strongly to put an end to this policy.
9. 1:14[Music]
10. 1:20Over the last half century, what's been referred  to as the mass media has hardly remained the same.
11. 1:33For instance, I've heard that back in the early  1980s, national television news broadcasts
12. 1:39consisted of three different half-hour reports  airing every weeknight at 6:30 p.m. on the three
13. 1:45major commercial networks, all of them reinforcing  the same centrist ideological worldview,
14. 1:52as the term centrist was generally understood  at the time. And that was it as far as what
15. 1:58could be seen of world events through a screen  on a daily basis. So, quite a lot has changed
16. 2:03over the last half century, when it comes to  getting the news. And yet for the last 50 years,
17. 2:09the Gallup polling organization keeps asking  respondents the same question about the mass
18. 2:15media. That question has to do with trust. Do  you trust me? What did you say? Do you trust me?
19. 2:32Yes.
20. 2:41Specifically, Gallup wants to know whether  you trust the mass media. Though we should
21. 2:45note that polling firms have long been a vital  part of the media landscape. In a sense, then,
22. 2:52what Gallup is really asking is, "Do you trust  us?" Here's how their question is phrased.
23. 2:59"In general, how much trust and confidence do  you have in the mass media such as newspapers,
24. 3:04TV, and radio when it comes to reporting the news  fully, accurately, and fairly? A great deal, a
25. 3:12fair amount, not very much, or none at all?" Quiz  question one: how would you respond to that Gallup
26. 3:20question? Briefly discuss. Quiz question two: Do  you have any objections to how the Gallup question
27. 3:27is framed and worded? If so, explain. For now, I'd  like briefly to point out four things about that
28. 3:34question. First, it's not open-ended. Respondents  are essentially given a multiple-choice test for
29. 3:40which they had no time to prepare. Second, the  internet is not included among the examples that
30. 3:47apparently are presented in case someone doesn't  know what the mass media refers to. Third,
31. 3:53respondents are asked if they trust the  media to report the news fully, accurately,
32. 3:58and fairly. By "fully," Gallup presumably means  not leaving out key details. And by "accurately,"
33. 4:05they must mean not distorting key facts.  Both seem like sound journalistic principles,
34. 4:12though there are always more facts that can be  brought into the picture. There are always more
35. 4:17ways to provide additional context, which may  alter the significance of what we have before
36. 4:22us. Such considerations complicate the pervasive  practice of factchecking, as will be discussed in
37. 4:29the notes. As for "fairly," Gallup likely refers  here to neutrality or impartiality. But could
38. 4:37maintaining objectivity in itself undermine trust  if segments of a news audience think it makes no
39. 4:44sense to be even-handed in the face of brazen acts  of state violence or flagrant violations of civil
40. 4:51rights? We'll further address that question in the  coming weeks. For now, let's turn to the last item
41. 4:57on our bullet-point list of possible objections  to the Gallup question. Given the current state of
42. 5:03so-called political polarization, it's hard to see  how many respondents could even provide a coherent
43. 5:10response to the Galp question. I say that because  if they think MS Now, formerly known as MSNBC,
44. 5:18fully, accurately, and fairly reports the news,  they're quite unlikely to think that Fox does
45. 5:23so as well. But both networks are part of the mass  media. So, what is someone who strongly identifies
46. 5:30with one of the two major political parties to  do with Gallup's question? But in spite of these
47. 5:36limitations, the Gallup survey is not without  value, in that the results chart an unmistakable
48. 5:4250-year trend. In fact, in 2012, media scholar  Jay Rosen of NYU wrote a highly influential report
49. 5:51that attempted to explain falling levels of public  trust, which have since then become still lower.
50. 5:58Examining Rosen's piece will allow us to see if  or how his arguments have aged, which should then
51. 6:04illuminate aspects of our present historical  moment that might otherwise remain unnoticed.
52. 6:11Taking as his point of departure the reasonable  assumption that technological changes on their
53. 6:16own cannot possibly account for rising levels of  distrust, Rosen draws up a list of seven possible
54. 6:22explanations for the crisis of legitimacy  afflicting the mass media. Today we'll take
55. 6:27up each in turn, starting with what Rosen refers  to as the systemic crisis of legitimacy. According
56. 6:35to this perspective, all major social institutions  have experienced a loss of public trust, including
57. 6:42financial centers, public school systems, the  Catholic Church, social service agencies, and,
58. 6:48above all, the US Congress. When viewed in this  light, the public mistrust of the press simply
59. 6:54appears to fit part of a larger pattern. However,  one problem with this explanation is that it
60. 7:01ignores the long-standing conception of a  watchdog press. In its capacity as watchdog,
61. 7:08the theory goes, the media functions as a fourth  branch of government that critically monitors the
62. 7:14other three, as well as the activities of  private corporations and institutions. So,
63. 7:18if major political, social, cultural, and even  religious institutions are failing the public,
64. 7:24then the press in its capacity as watchdog  should be reporting on it. But if the media
65. 7:29is not serving the public interest by regularly  practicing investigative journalism at a time
66. 7:35when it is needed more than ever, that might  explain why the media has lost the public's trust.
67. 7:43However, the media's role as watchdog was, even in  its heyday in the 1970s, compromised by its often
68. 7:50differential coverage, particularly when it came  to foreign policy. Such a refusal or reluctance
69. 7:57on the part of the legacy media to challenge  powerful political interests may have a lot to
70. 8:02do with the fact that the major networks and print  news sources are themselves major stakeholders in
71. 8:09the political system, especially given the scope  of media consolidation. In other words, the legacy
72. 8:16media is not an effective watchdog because,  and this is the second item on Rosen's list,
73. 8:22it forms an integral part of the existing  power structure. But if that's the case,
74. 8:28then what are we to make of the third item on  Rosen's list, which is the accusation that the
75. 8:33mass media has a fundamental liberal bias? Well,  for some, the second and third items on this list
76. 8:41actually complement and reinforce one another. For  instance, the political theorist Patrick Deneen
77. 8:46of Notre Dame argues that prior to Trump's  2024 electoral victory, liberal elites had a
78. 8:53stranglehold on political, economic, and cultural  power in this country, which naturally meant they
79. 8:59also dominated the mass media. I'll say a bit  more in the notes about Deneen's understanding
80. 9:05of this power elite and also make reference to  some who are critical of his use of that term.
81. 9:11The point to emphasize for now is that the reign  of liberal elites was doomed, Deneen argues,
82. 9:17because the United States generally is a  conservative country. But most journalists
83. 9:22are liberals, even if they're not as explicit  in their views as say Rachel Maddow. The charge
84. 9:29leveled here is that while liberal journalists  claim impartiality, their ideology affects
85. 9:35their reporting, and viewers sense this bias. The  result is mistrust. The accusation that journalism
86. 9:44betrays a liberal bias dates back some 50 years,  when supporters of Barry Goldwater's losing
87. 9:49presidential campaign in 1964 accused the media  of contributing to the Republican candidate's
88. 9:56defeat. The right's attacks on liberal bias  intensified during the Vietnam War. And by 1969,
89. 10:03many on the right were convinced that diminishing  public support for the war was attributable to the
90. 10:08liberal media's misrepresentation of it. And now?  Assessing liberal bias in the present, the editor
91. 10:17of Current Affairs, Nathan Robinson, argues that  the media's hegemonic ideology would be better
92. 10:23described as centrist bias, which reminds us that  the terms left, center, and right are not etched
93. 10:30in stone. These "directions" and "locations" are  themselves determined by a person's ideology. That
94. 10:38is, what one calls far-left, another will term  moderate or centrist. Well, whatever we want to
95. 10:45call the mass media's hegemonic ideology, Robinson  thinks those who promote and uphold it should in
96. 10:51fact embrace rather than deny their unavoidable  bias. According to Robinson, "one reason
97. 10:58conservatives hate the mainstream media is that it  pretends to be something it isn't. Conservatives
98. 11:04think the press has a liberal bias, but few at  MSN Now or CNN would admit that there are partisan
99. 11:11networks. Paradoxically, rebuilding trust requires  embracing bias. Not embracing untruthfulness but
100. 11:19admitting your politics, so that both writer  and audience can be critical." What Robinson
101. 11:25calls for here resonates with a principal theme  of our course, which stresses the importance of
102. 11:30maintaining a critical awareness of how our  ideology shapes our perceptions of political
103. 11:36events. And the need to maintain such an awareness  applies also to consumers of news, as can be
104. 11:44inferred from this graph, which is taken from a  Pew Research report that indicates cable news show
105. 11:50preferences are extraordinarily partisan. Perhaps  most striking of all, 91% of those who identify
106. 11:57the New York Times as their main source of print  or digital news refer to themselves as Democrats
107. 12:04or Democratic-leaning. That 91% figure might have  come as a surprise to both the editors and readers
108. 12:11of an ostensibly nonpartisan paper that since the  late 1890s has claimed it simply publishes "all
109. 12:18the news that's fit to print." But that's not to  say the legacy media simply ignores or dismisses
110. 12:26charges of liberal bias. Indeed, according  to Brooklyn College professor Eric Alterman,
111. 12:31such accusations may actually trigger changes in  media coverage that move it to the right. And this
112. 12:37happens through a process he refers to as "working  the refs." Alterman borrows that term from sports
113. 12:44journalists who draw attention to how some  basketball coaches routinely complain that the
114. 12:49referees are favoring the other team. In doing so,  those coaches hope to create uncertainty in the
115. 12:55minds of the officials and then perhaps get the  benefit of the doubt on some close calls. The key
116. 13:01point is that working the refs is not necessarily  triggered by an actual series of bad calls.
117. 13:08Coaches use the tactic regardless of whether  the refs have been unfair to their side. And
118. 13:14that's because their aim is to intimidate. So  what does this all have to do with the media?
119. 13:21Alterman likens working the refs to the ways in  which conservatives allegedly receive favorable
120. 13:26news coverage by accusing the media of one-sided  reporting. In other words, Alterman claims some
121. 13:32on the right have learned how to intimidate  journalists by never letting up on the charge
122. 13:38of liberal bias. And when the press caves, as  it often did during the Reagan administration,
123. 13:44as documented in the book shown here, such a  capitulation to conservative views may lead to
124. 13:50instances of public mistrust. However, what about  mass media coverage of Republican presidents since
125. 13:57Reagan, including, of course, coverage of the  Trump administration? Quiz question number three:
126. 14:03can you think of a contemporary example that  either supports or undermines Alterman's
127. 14:08theory of working the refs? Briefly discuss and  comment on how your response may shed light on
128. 14:14the relationship between the legacy media and the  White House today. But perhaps focusing on liberal
129. 14:21bias or working the refs misses a larger point,  namely that both of those positions are held in
130. 14:27the midst of what is commonly referred to as the  culture war. That would explain why Fox News,
131. 14:34for instance, has been identified simultaneously  as the most mistrusted and the most trusted cable
132. 14:40news source, according to Pew Research Center  surveys. The sixth explanation Rosen offers for
133. 14:47the loss of trust in the media is that certain  cable news pundits on both sides of this culture
134. 14:53war have undermined confidence in the press as a  whole. The argument here is that the mass media
135. 14:59has taken on tabloid-like qualities that have  tarnished the reputation of the entire news
136. 15:04industry, a view even put forward at times  by media figures themselves, which in turn
137. 15:10generates sensationalistic coverage. As happened,  to take just one instance, when Jessica Tarlov,
138. 15:17the liberal panelist on Fox's "The Five," declared  that "as someone who's on cable news, I apologize
139. 15:24to the entire world for what we export." The final  item on our list refers back to an aspect of the
140. 15:31question Gallup posed to survey respondents:  that the media ought to report the news fully.
141. 15:38According to Rosen, those falling within lower  social economic brackets do not believe their
142. 15:43interests are addressed by the political process,  a situation for which the media deserves a large
143. 15:49share of the blame. That is, Rosen argues that  gaps in media coverage have emerged as a result of
144. 15:56a particular journalistic mindset and class bias,  which renders many media personnel oblivious to
145. 16:02the fact that they have lost touch with widespread  and deepening citizen concerns. In other words,
146. 16:10barring a full-fledged financial crisis or  major scandal, which necessitates congressional
147. 16:16hearings, the legacy media pays little heed to  historical developments that have had a negative
148. 16:22effect on individuals' personal savings,  on their possibilities for upward mobility,
149. 16:29and on their job security. As a result, those  experiencing precarity feel as though the legacy
150. 16:36media does not report on or publicize social  economic issues of vital importance, which leads
151. 16:43to a tuning out and loss of trust. Let's conclude  with quiz question number four: briefly discuss
152. 16:52which of the seven explanations that have been  presented today provide us, in your view, with the
153. 16:57best way to account for the public's loss of trust  in the mass media. You may choose more than one.