The media, the fourth estate, one of the most respected institutions in our nation and the sole industry that is explicitly protected in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights, has seemingly lost its credibility over the past decade.
With the rise of social media journalism and rapid information sharing, the American people have come to see what was once believed to be an institution of truth above any and all agenda as nothing more than an outlet for big corporations and independent reporters to advocate for their causes, political parties, and the like.
When we think about what the media reports on, we think about all of the lies, the purposeful misinterpretations of facts, and the misleading headlines that they push. But what we often forget is that what is more important than what they report on is what they do not report on.
When it came to President Joe Biden during his single term, the mainstream media thoroughly enjoyed reporting on his successes, ignored his failures and pushed back on any person or entity that called into question his ability to lead or the soundness of his policies. With Donald Trump, on the other hand, that tune immediately changed.
Rather than focusing on the president’s successes, many of which a great deal of Americans from across the political aisle could agree on, they instead focus on what they perceive as failures, wrongfully decry narratives that go against mainstream beliefs and push back instead of giving those narratives a thorough examination.
The Trump-Russia collusion hoax is emblematic of this idea of focusing on anti-Trump narratives. But we do not need to think at such a high-stakes level to see this. Take the president’s recent trip to Scotland.
In the midst of two major conflicts occurring across the world, protests in the streets, and immediately after signing into law his audacious One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the mainstream media treated his trip to Scotland as some sign or evidence of him being uncaring about the American people.
They saw him on a golf course and assumed that he was not hard at work. The Associated Press ran the headline, “Trump once decried the idea of presidential vacations. His Scotland trip is built around golf.” CNN wrote, “Trump flees Washington controversies for golf-heavy trip to Scotland.” The list goes on.
But, of course, there is always more to the story. Presumably, the journalists writing these articles or at least those directing them do not really care about the context. The people writing these articles simply do not know what Trump is up to. This is a fact.
Sure, he is playing golf. Can the president not take a little break? Joe Biden seemed to thoroughly enjoy his vacations. But they do not know who he is on the phone with, who he is meeting with or what his objectives are.
Did Trump really just travel to Scotland to play golf and forget about the wars going on between Israel and Hamas, Iran, or Russia and Ukraine? Did he simply take a vacation to get his battles over policy implementation off his mind? Or maybe he just wanted to forget about striking tariff deals and the like. Obviously not.
Trump is undoubtedly doing more than meets the eye. The fact that major, high-profile meetings have been relegated to footnotes is embarrassing. It is well known and already reported that he held meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the EU-U.S. trade agreement, and in fact struck a major trade deal with the EU during his visit. He also met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and, during his discussions with political leaders in the EU, he lashed out at them over their awful immigration problem.
“On immigration, you better get your act together or you’re not going to have Europe anymore,” Trump said. “You got to get your act together, and last month we had nobody entering our country. Nobody. Shut it down.”
All of that sounds like a big deal, and it is interesting to see it completely ignored so that the narrative of a golf vacation can be pushed. But look, the numbers simply do not lie.
In 2005, around 55% of Americans had confidence in the media reporting news accurately and fairly. Last year, that number dropped to 31%, and the trend continues downward. Compared to other industries, trust in the media is embarrassing: 44% of the public trusts the banking industry, and 42% of the public trusts government services.
The media may soon be even less trusted than insurance companies, which sit at 24% public trust.
Of course, we cannot forget that local news is now and has always remained one of the most trusted industries in the nation: 72% of Americans said they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in local news. And this is because local media focuses on communities and what those communities are interested in, not the broad political narratives that big corporations attempt to push.
The vast majority of our colleagues in journalism are not in cahoots with politicians, and those who are ruin the good names of the rest of us. We risk much to do what we do, working long hours at the expense of our families, and risking our well-being by exposing wrongdoing.
The Baltimore Sun family has experienced firsthand what it’s like to be targeted, violently. This summer is the seventh anniversary of the deadly attack on The Capital Gazette, where five of our colleagues were murdered in a brutal mass shooting. That tragedy didn’t cow The Capital, which managed to publish in spite of the devastation. Journalists do this work because it’s critical to the functioning of our democracy. It is a public service.
The American people deserve a press that can be trusted. They deserve to be led toward truth, not agenda. Media should not be left, right or center. Even neutrality is an agenda, because it presupposes that a balance between both sides must be made. What media needs to be is facts first and facts only, no conclusions.
Telling the public what is occurring without leaving out any important details is media at its best. But it is not the media we have today.
Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.