I always chuckle when someone in social media, or even in the actual media, quips about how the public has lost confidence in news media.

References about the good old days of Walter Cronkite and how we lived and breathed on the major network nightly news was indeed outstanding, but there were flaws and disagreements even back then.

I have written before how instrumental news presentations like the CBS  "White Paper" series in the 50s and early 60s shaped even a youngster like me. Edward R. Murrow, always holding a cigarette in hand and puffing away while questioning topics and guests with the "White Papers’ and shows like "See it Now and "Person to Person". 

I recall seeing shows on how Murrow’s presentations stopped the anticommunist persecutions led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Then there were the reports of the harsh lives of migrant workers in the fields.

Today, Murrow’s name is still synonymous with journalistic excellence. He continues to be regarded as a television news pioneer, influencing the likes of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings.

During the Vietnam war, film delivered in what was then unheard of speeding time, showing the gore of war and changed a generation of watchers, along with political leanings.

No longer hampered by film and its drawbacks, video began appearing in the 1970s, and  that evolved into almost instant news production. 

I recall how a fledgling CNN, brought to life by pioneer Ted Turner, started a 24 hour cable news channel that revolutionized the way news was presented. 

CNN became news itself as other outlets began imitations and the race was on.

So, what changed? Why do people mistrust the news today?

The meal for news increased beyond the here and now. CNN became a bit boring with recycled news and the avalanche of ‘panel discussions’ and ‘opinion news shows" began clouding actual news. 

With the advent of social media taking over, news became secondary to the public’s domain and reasoning. We all spread news, mixed with emotions and opinions faster that our fingers could type.

In short, we began distrusting actual news outlets, mainly because they did not necessarily agree with what we were being fed by the almighty social media. According to a recent survey by Pew Research Center, approximately 21% of U.S. adults regularly get their news from social media influencers. The survey, conducted in late July and early August 2024, included over 10,000 U.S. adults. The term "news influencers" was defined as "individuals who have a large following on social media and often post about news or political or social issues."

The survey revealed that younger adults are more likely to get news from social media influencers, with nearly four in ten Americans aged 18 to 29 (37%) saying they regularly get news from these sources, compared to just 7% of those aged 65 and older. The study also found that similar proportions of Republicans (21%) and Democrats (22%) regularly get news from social media influencers.

Some outlets steered to the right while others to the left, and soon followers were defined by what news outlets they watched, or did not watch. The news that we did not agree with became the enemy.

The ‘media extravaganza’ by everyone was in full play. It was no longer a mistrust of the media, but perhaps the mistrust by the media of us. 

The "White Papers’,  simply would not survive in today’s news markets. We, the people, became critical of every word, every picture, every video. With  the slow introduction of false narratives,  doctored editing and (AI) Artificial Intelligence, no one knew what to believe and were quick to dismiss actual news.

Even in local news, the networks were instructed to be light hearted whenever possible. Crack jokes during broadcasts to become more affable to the audience. Show them we are human.

The problem became that news was becoming more entertaining than actual  news presentation. That is what we/you demanded of us - the media.

Of course, there are those in the industry claiming to be fair and impartial, but we all know better, as time and money rules the roost. We want it now and most preferably in our likeness and  satisfaction.

By the way, the U.S. has lost more that two local newspapers per week, including dailies and weeklies. Radio news has all but evaporated along with profits at local networks outlets. In short, news is not as profitable, or as prevalent as it was decades ago.

The U.S. is also following less democratic nations in perhaps hampering news.

In a recent Poynter Report by Tom Jones there was the question: 

Now that Donald Trump is the president-elect, could he actually go after what he commonly and consistently calls “the enemy of the people?” Kelly McBride, Poynter’s senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership pointed out:.

“The first is he may try and influence federal regulation that will affect the owners of media; so licensing of broadcasting and then other owners who have other business interests,” McBride said. Think Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post and other businesses, including Amazon.

Two, McBride says, “He can, order the Justice Department, to go after anonymous sources of reporters. (The Justice Department), can subpoena reporters and threaten them with jail if they don’t reveal their sources. That will both hurt those individual reporters and those organizations, and it will have a chilling effect, because it will make sources less likely to come forward, and it will make other journalists less likely to push hard on vigilant coverage.”

And, three, McBride says, “He can use the Sedition Act to go after leakers. He can persecute people who want to get information out to the public. So if you think about one of the biggest stories out of his first administration was the child separation, right? 

Stuff that was leaked initially about that, and then a lot of information was leaked — he could go after all of those people and threaten them with sedition charges for destabilizing government security. … That will intimidate the immediate people, and it will have a chilling effect on people down the road. So he can do a lot to intimidate or destabilize the environment in which reporting happens.”

Bottom line: News and the way it is presented is under fire, now more than ever.

The real problem is not that we have lost confidence and now mistrust the news. We have created a media in our own image of what we feel is the truth and what we want to believe, the "Media Extravaganza." The truth? You don’t want the truth? 

Walt Kelly’s funny animal comic strip Pogo provided a surprising, but effective, setting for his incisive political satire. One of Pogo’s best quotes was “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us!”