Why Doesn't Anyone Trust The Media?
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Hello listeners,
Well, It turns out our episode about Donald Trump's incredible political comebackended up being remarkably timely and prescient. Thanks again to Mike, Emily, and everyone who shared their thoughts on how Trump achieved what no other politician in history has managed to do.
In the wake of the election results, many Democrats are doing some serious soul-searching (and a fair amount of blame-gaming) to understand why they lost. Some are even suggesting it’s time to engage voters in good faith on difficult issues, like the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports. Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton recently said:
“We tried to cancel people rather than actually having debates about issues that Americans care about… What does it say to American voters if people in our own party can’t even have this debate?”
Matt, Megan Phelps-Roper, and I have spent significant time reporting on the nuances and challenges of this debate - as well as the pressure to cancel people, instead of engaging them. This feels like an appropriate moment to revisit The Witch Trials of JK Rowling series, along with the two follow-up episodes of Reflector we released this summer. (If you’ve already listened, maybe consider sharing them with a friend who’d find them useful).
But it’s not just Democrats reckoning with a loss of trust. New polling from places like Gallup shows historically high levels of distrust in journalists. Meaning that a profession built on the delivery of trusted information is now in the midst of a full on crisis of mistrust.
How did we get here? What are we doing wrong? And what, if anything, can we—or should we—do to regain that trust?
For today’s episode, we take a frank look at the media’s role in this crisis with Ben Smith and Nayeema Raza.
Ben Smith is the co-founder of Semafor, a news organization with ambitious goals to redefine global journalism. He’s the former media columnist for The New York Timesand was the founding editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, leading it from a scrappy startup to a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom. Ben’s journalism roots trace back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, where he covered crime and New York politics for local papers. He was part of the early journalism blogging era online, reported on the 2008 Obama campaign for Politico, and embodies a no-nonsense ethos to journalism that I’ve come to admire over the years.
Nayeema Raza is (alongside Ben) the co-host on Semafor’s media podcast Mixed Signals, which explores how money, culture, and politics shape everything we read, watch, and hear. She has worked as executive producer at The New York Times Opinion and frequently guest-hosts Open to Debate. With a background in film and documentary, Nayeema often draws fascinating parallels between newsroom trends and what’s happening in Hollywood and beyond.
As you’ll hear, the three of us don’t always agree. In this episode, I’m a bit more open with my views than usual—we even scrutinize some of my past work. Together, we wrestle with the causes and context of the current trust crisis in journalism, explore historical parallels, discuss the disruption of the internet and influence of social media, and unpack lessons from the Trump era so far.