We've fallen a long way from the days when Walter Cronkite was widely considered "the most trusted man in America." The latest edition of the annual Edelman Trust Barometer shows journalists are now among the least trusted groups in the world, only one point above government leaders. The percentage of those who distrust journalists has risen eight points just in the last year.
These results are just the latest indictment of the so-called mainstream media, which had a rough 2022 and was recently called out by billionaire (and new Twitter CEO) Elon Musk. Jeff McCall, professor of media studies at DePauw University, believes much of the traditional media has grown accustomed to its own status and influence, and is in need of a wake-up call. "Legacy media has a tremendous amount of power in setting the agenda, helping decide who gets elected to high office, and establishing the points of discussion in our society," he tells KTRH. "And frankly, they have too much power."
McCall expects the media will only get worse as they feel that power slipping away. "I think the legacy media intends to go after anybody who doesn't follow their left-of-center norms of journalism," he says.
Based on the Edelman survey, the public tends to agree with that. Nearly half of respondents said media is a divisive force in society, versus only about one-third who called it a unifying force. Beyond that, more than two-thirds of those surveyed said they worry journalists are "purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations."
McCall believes nothing short of a complete reset can save the media. "We need the media to perform well for the sake of our nation, on so many different levels," he says. "We need a free flow of information, we need to challenge establishment governments, we need to challenge establishment corporations."
"The legacy media, sadly over the last several years, have not been doing that in the ways they were constitutionally created to do."