The Fourth Estate

In 1976 the Gallup Poll reported that 72% of Americans trusted the press. It hasn’t come close to that level since, and its approval ratings now stand at 32%, and 14% among Republicans, the lowest ever. It’s worth noting that its highest ratings came in the wake of tough reporting on Vietnam and Watergate, which made it reviled – and also feared – by powerful people. They accused it of bias, tried to discredit its stories and attacked the motivations of its reporters and editors. Perhaps no one hated the press more than Richard Nixon, who believed that “the elite, East Coast liberals of the media” only told one side of the story. He often appealed directly to the public, and after his speech on Vietnam brought a flood of support from the “silent majority,” he gloated, “The press corps is dying.” Yet the public continued to trust the press and admire its work, and young people flocked to news careers. Obviously, things have changed – most importantly, I would argue, the plummeting advertising revenues that once enabled the press to fund investigative reporting and withstand attacks on its credibility. Its ability to operate as a public trust depended on its ability to prosper as a private enterprise. That is now in doubt.

But one thing hasn’t changed: the attacks from those who would discredit it, often the powerful and those with something to hide. And it’s worth remembering that the press was trusted most, not when it tried to be “balanced,” but when it got the story right.

The Issue isn't Being Fair, it's Seeking the Truth

This response from a former newspaper editor and publisher is part of a series on the First Amendment and the role of the news media in America. Oxford Dictionaries recently named "post-truth" its 2016 word of the year.

I mention that because I believe a major step toward improving news organizations is to get away from the idea of fairness as we have known it and replace it with a commitment to tell the truth about the issues that mean the most to the community and audiences a news operation serves.

The goal of most news organizations now is to accurately and fairly present the opposing sides of an issue. Making sure a story is "fair" is both a goal and a shield. But being satisfied with getting comments from "both sides" is undermining our news organizations, promoting falsehoods, and distorting the truth.

Say what you will about John Stewart and John Oliver being comedians, they get/got to the truth on important issues – which is why, I believe, they are popular and respected, especially among millennials.

Because thinking we are doing our job by doing the usual – "the democrats say this, the republicans say that," – is so easy and deeply ingrained, journalists need training to acquire the skills to get to the truth – developing sources, cultivating experts who can provide context and understanding, and following news threads wherever they lead.

Being all things to all people is no longer possible – if it ever was. The goal must be truth, not fairness in the traditional newspaper sense, and being obsessive about getting to the truth is the road we need to travel.