It makes sobering reading for any journalist who strives for truth, accuracy and impartiality in news coverage.
The recent Trust Barometer - an annual global report from major PR company, Edelman, about trust in institutions - suggested that journalists are among the least trusted people, and that they’re seen as a dividing force, not a unifying one.
It’s a depressing thought for people like me who’ve worked all their careers to excavate the truth, and to be fair, accurate and impartial.
The report says only 37% of people have trust in the news media in the UK, and that’s UP by two points from last year. But I think I’ve worked out why the figures are so low.
Broadly speaking, it’s not that mainstream news organisations aren’t telling the truth.
It’s that society is now so polarised that large slices of the population don’t like the truth. Or even believe it. So they don’t trust the messenger.
Nothing has been as divisive in the UK as Brexit. So when news outlets reported in November that Brexit “will result in the UK’s trade intensity being 15% lower in the long run than if the UK had remained in the EU”, you can imagine ardent Brexit supporters not wanting to believe it, and deciding that it’s just anti-Brexit spin by the establishment.
In fact, it was the conclusion of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, as published alongside the Autumn Statement.
Polarisation in the UK has been amplified by Brexit, culture wars, social media, the north-south divide, the gap between rich and poor, and so much anger about everything, everywhere, all at once.
That’s why so many people won’t trust the truth - even when it is the truth.
The divisions in society are surely even greater in the United States, where trust in the media has at least gone up by four points to 43% since last year. There’s a constituency in America that doesn’t believe the truth that Joe Biden legitimately won the presidency, so they’re hardly going to believe all of the news reports on the major networks.
The world of broadcasting — which I’ve worked in for four decades — is regulated by Ofcom to be impartial, fair and accurate. And the last Ofcom figures on trust in broadcasters had my recent colleagues at Sky News at 75% for both accuracy and trustworthiness, with BBC and ITV only very marginally behind.
This is an encouraging story. It shows that proper journalism, prosecuted determinedly and fairly by the main broadcasters and their expanding digital services will win high levels of trust. And their efforts to report the truth and hold politicians and other leaders to account are more important than ever in a world of discordant voices, disinformation and downright lies on the internet.
There’s a hunger for reliable information. When Sky News went from 80,000 TikTok followers a year ago to over one million in two months, it wasn’t because they were making dancing dog videos. It was because they were providing high quality information and explanation about the war in Ukraine.
And the most important truths are those we might have never known if it wasn't for the work of journalists in broadcasting and in newspapers.
We might never have known the depth of the outrageous Windrush scandal without Amelia Gentleman at the Guardian. Without the work of journalists at the New York Times and New Yorker, Harvey Weinstein may still have been holding “casting meetings” with with female actors. And it took Times journalists to uncover the appalling truth about some Oxfam staff using prostitutes in Haiti after the devastating earthquake there.
In broadcasting, the BBC, ITV News, Sky News and Channel 4 News have regularly uncovered stories that powerful people wanted to keep secret.
That’s part of the job — to hold people in power to account.
All of these main news outlets, print and broadcast, are currently reporting from Ukraine, and have been doing so since February 2022. Divining the truth when mis-information becomes a weapon alongside the bullets and missiles, is a tough job. And these news teams are putting themselves in harms way to deliver important eye witness journalism.
Despite the cynicism, despite the angry echo-chambers, despite the surveys, rest assured that serious journalists are dedicated to telling the truth. You can trust in that.
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