Press On: Why is media credibility vanishing?
After spending nearly all of my working years for newspapers, it makes me sick that the latest Gallup poll on media trust shows that more people distrust the media in the United States than trust newspapers and television news. And, even worse, American mass media trust has fallen below the level of trust for the executive and judicial branches of government.
The poll, which was conducted from Sept. 13 to 16, indicated that 57 percent of respondents don”t trust the media while 43 percent said that they do trust the media. In terms of media distrust, it is the worst Gallup poll rating ever.
I don”t fully understand what is driving this gradual degradation of trust for the media. One of the reasons I”ve always loved the newspaper business is because the institution has historically been the bedrock for truth and honesty in this country. Perhaps the public has forgotten that less than 40 years ago two newspaper reporters, a strong editor and a fearless female publisher drove a crooked president out of office. Nixon”s capitulation was the only presidential resignation in U.S. history.
I called upon that strength during my first publisher job when I stood up to a judge who imposed a gag order on a gag order. We informed our readers of his action because it was illegal and it smelled fishy. I was found in contempt of court, fined $2,500 and sentenced to seven days in jail. I had to take my case all the way to the state supreme court for justice. It was unanimously provided at that level.
The price I paid was slight compared to some others. Right here in America reporters have been killed because they were hot on the trail of a story that would provide truth to the American public. And, the thanks for all of the sacrifices that have been made is that the percentage of people who trust what we provide dwindles a little more each year.
Tomorrow is the first day of National Newspaper Week 2010. I think to the surprise of some and to the joy of many, newspapers are still around and the staffs that make them up are still working hard to provide readers with information about their community that they may not be able to get from any other source.
Today the mainstream news media is in competition with numerous bloggers and news Web sites. Most newspapers work extremely hard to make sure that their stories follow standard newspaper guidelines, such as the Associated Press stylebook. Many of the non-traditional news Web sites and bloggers don”t pay any attention to journalistic standards.
An example that comes to mind is the Shirley Sherrod debacle earlier this year. Blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a speech video that made Sherrod, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, look like a racist, when, in fact, during her speech she spoke out against racism and discrimination. Based on the doctored video she lost her job and endured countless insults on a national basis. Perhaps it is due to some of these new media outlets that trust of the media is waning.
Mainstream newspapers certainly are not perfect. We make honest mistakes every day. But never in my more than three decades in the business am I aware of a case in which a newspaper intentionally printed lies in an effort to intentionally defraud its readers. Fraudulent stories have been published, but only because reporters have been able to deceive their editor(s).
The news stories that our reporters write and our editors edit, you can take to the bank as the truth. If it turns out that something isn”t factual, a correction notice will be published. The Record-Bee has not existed for 136 years by being dishonest. I don”t care what the polls say, you can believe it if you read it in the Record-Bee.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
