From the revolutionary days of Sam Adams attacking British control of Boston with incendiary newspaper columns in the Boston Gazette to the modern era where major television outlets and countless Internet sites promote political parties, candidates for public office and policy issues from various ideological perspectives, the United States is a country that has embraced freedom of the press. Throughout our history the character and direction of politics has been influenced by a wide range of opinion makers, scandal mongers, muckrakers, image shapers, propagandists, rabble rousers, and truth tellers. Whether through newspapers, radio talk shows, television programming, citizen websites, and comedy performances, Americans are regularly exposed to political commentary and criticism designed to shape their thinking and their vote.
Often called the Fourth Estate, suggesting that the modern media is an extra-constitutional branch of the government, the individuals and corporate entities that control the various sectors of the news and commentary have become a powerful force in American politics. Those seeking public office, or the advancement of key public policies, rely upon the media to get their message out to the citizenry. In today’s media world, forming a campaign strategy, advancing a legislative proposal, promoting issue-based lobbying or influencing public opinion formation requires a core ingredient of communication and media.
While the goals of the modern media are wide ranging and multi-purposed, the question that is central to the role of these sources of information and commentary is whether the messaging presented is accurate, honest and balanced. Increasingly, critics of the media state that major sources of the news too often favor one party, one candidate and one point of view, creating rampant and biased “misinformation” that is compounded by a failure to “fact check” what viewers see and hear. The news of the day is too often not a transparent presentation of political positions or policies, but rather a partisan and ideological commentary designed to influence voter preferences.
The charges and countercharges leveled against media sites are often the result of market share competition between conservative cable networks such as Fox and Newsmax and the liberal networks of MSNBC and CNN. The Fox network has been singled out as the “voice” of the MAGA movement associated with Donald Trump, while MSNBC is viewed as the liberal critic of Trump and his MAGA voter base. Fox and its prime-time commentators such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are some of the main 2020 election deniers of Biden’s victory and use their program slot to condemn the President and his administration on hot button issues such as immigration, crime and inflation. MSNBC and its lead commentators Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell constantly attack former President Trump as unfit for office and a threat to democratic government.
The partisan and ideological divisions that describe the current media landscape in the United States has led to a significant decline in citizen trust and reliance on traditional sources of the news. A Gallup poll which tracked American’s trust in the media from 1972-2023 found that only 32% of the population had “a great deal” of confidence that the media reports the news in a full, fair and accurate way, while 39% of Americans responded that they don’t trust the media at all. It is interesting to point out that the Gallup study found the media channel that garnered the most trust was the Weather Channel. Also, a recent Pew Research study found that U.S. adults under 30 trust information from social media sites at about the same rate as traditional mainstream news outlets. Members of the Generation Z cohort rarely watch the evening news and rely on scrolling through their iPhone for timely information. What is even more disturbing than the decline of traditional sources of the news is mounting evidence that Americans are ignoring all sources of the mainstream news as they claim to be turned off by what they believe is journalistic bias. If they do seek out the news or political commentary, these skeptics often visit Internet sites that are on the extreme fringes of the ideological spectrum and have little commitment to providing fact-based information.
The lack of trust in the media coupled with a growing reliance on non-mainstream sources of the news has created a nation of ill-informed citizens who are too often swayed by politicians and commentators skilled in persuasive politics. Rather than researching a statement made by a politician or commentator, too many Americans are influenced by the image, the presentation and the passion of those making a political argument. For example, the mainstream media regularly presented extensive and reliable evidence that Joe Biden had indeed won the 2020 presidential election, and yet thousands of Americans accepted the election denying statements of politicians and commentators as fact. Mistrust of the media was often cited as the cause of the election denying position.
Freedom of the press is one of our most cherished rights as American. The ability of media entities and indeed average citizens to express opinions, promote a cause or share the news is a central component of our democratic way of life. But today in our polarized political arena, freedom of the press is threatened by those who would use this precious right to evade the truth, advance radical causes, and weaken the ability of government to function honestly and effectively. Gone are the days of watching the evening news and accepting what was presented by commentators as fact. Now we live in a world of multiple sources of information that too many times is not factual but what has come to be called “alternative facts.” For our democracy to survive and prosper, it is essential to return to the days of trust in the media and belief that what is presented to us is indeed the truth. But to return to that trust and truth, the media must recommit itself to honesty and integrity — not an easy task.