Based on an analysis conducted by the New York Times, President Donald Trump issued 444 separate Twitter attacks on the so-called “fake news media” between his declaration of candidacy and July of this year. He questioned the credibility of the New York Times alone 211 times, and cast doubt on the Washington Post on 51 occasions. When the attacks escalated to calling the media “the enemy of the people,” prominent politicians began to condemn his remarks.
Trump’s attacks also prompted Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor at the Boston Globe, to make a nationwide call for newspapers to defend their work by publishing coordinated editorials. “Trump [had] stepped up his rhetoric against the press … so we thought it was time to remind people about the importance of a free press,” Pritchard said in an interview with the HPR. Over 300 publications around the country published editorials along with the Globe on Aug. 16. Pritchard said this demonstrates how passionate journalists are about fulfilling their constitutional duty to act as a watchdog and check the government.
In order for the media to play its role as a watchdog, it relies on public trust; the people must believe the press in order to take action based upon its reporting. Trump’s rhetoric on the media has undermined this trust, threatening the nation’s democratic system.
The Intention: Journalists’ Watchdog Role in Democracy
When the Framers enshrined the freedom of press into the Constitution, they understood that journalists are an essential component of democracy. “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter in 1787.
The role of the press has not changed since. Journalists remain the “custodians of conscience” in the United States, said Theodore Glasser, professor emeritus of communication at Stanford University, in an interview with the HPR. They “look for violations of the moral order … the norms concerning what’s right and wrong.”
Glasser also added that what journalists report has ramifications in the political arena. “Media sets an agenda; it tells the people what to think about,” he explained. Glasser cited the case of Christine Blasey Ford as an example — her accusation that then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her was unknown to the general public before The Washington Post reported the story.
Matthew Baum, professor of Global Communications at the Harvard Kennedy School, agreed with Glasser’s assessment. “Ideally the media … monitor what’s going on and inform citizens about things that are useful for them to know,” Baum told the HPR. “This is sounding the alarm when something of consequence happens, monitoring crises and bringing it to people’s attention, and holding government and representatives accountable.”
In an interview with the HPR, Ann Compton, a former ABC News White House Correspondent, noted the importance of the press’ monitoring role in a democracy: “The press reports on how the government is operating, and it is often that information that encourages the public to demand action of their legislators,” Compton said.
Some would argue that, throughout history, the press has reported inaccurate information and has gotten away with doing so because the public trusted it too much. However, according to Compton, the mainstream media knows that it has an obligation to report the unbiased truth, and should be believed. “Who cares, Democrats or Republicans. As a reporter, I care whether every American who has to cast a vote [or] pay taxes … believes factual information that is put out there,” she said. Moreover, since the 1800s, the media has become increasingly objective and therefore has brought important issues to light regardless of which party has held power.
The Reality: A Mistrusted Press
Trump’s attacks have eroded the public trust that the media requires to fulfill its mission. Glasser said that while President Nixon, whose administration was brought down by reporters, took issue with the way the press covered him as a President, Trump has gone after the institution of journalism at its core.
“It conveys the message to his base that journalism is not an important institution … and I’ve never heard of a President doing that before,” Glasser said. He added that the President has the right to criticize news outlets such as the New York Times when they commit genuine errors, but that Trump has gone beyond this by disputing the credible reports of such outlets.
Compton said that the President’s attacks piggybacked on a growing trend of distrust in the media. “Because [he] targeted the press as being unreliable, the natural skepticism that the American people have about the information they’re getting became even more distorted,” she said. She believes that this distrust exists primarily as a result of the digital revolution since the internet has created a problem of quantity over quality in media. While Compton conceded that the diffusion of online media has created more outlets to question and challenge the mainstream press, she emphasized that these online organizations often turn to partisanship to remain distinct from traditional outlets. Seeing partisan views where they expect objective reporting makes people distrust the media.
Baum agreed that Trump did not start the increase in distrust, which in fact has decades-old roots. “Conservatives have been attacking the press as biased towards liberals since Watergate,” he said. “Over time that has had an effect on public perception of objectivity of the press. What President Trump did is act more overtly and aggressively than [any other President] has.” Baum believes this decades-long trend, exacerbated by Trump’s rhetoric, explains the results of a 2017 Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey which found that “Americans’ perceptions of the news media are generally negative, and their perceptions of bias [in reporting] have grown considerably from a generation ago. A majority cannot name an objective news source.”
The President’s attacks have made it very difficult for the press to affect people’s view of his administration, and thus their votes. “[Trump] has attacked the credibility of…mainstream journalism, presumably to neutralize their ability to hold him accountable, so any criticisms will be discounted, especially by his supporters,” Baum said. A CBS News poll from July confirms the effectiveness of Trump’s tactics; it found that 91 percent of Trump’s “strong supporters” trust the President to give them accurate information while only 11 percent trust the media to play that role.
In addition, a Pew poll released in September found a divide between members of different parties in their trust of the media to act as a watchdog. While 82 percent of Democrats think that the press “keeps political leaders from doing things that shouldn’t be done,” only 38 percent of Republicans agree. In the same Pew poll taken in 2009, in the beginnings of President Obama’s administration, Republicans actually trusted the media more strongly than Democrats.
Baum said this points toward polarization as the source of the distrust of the media. “As polarization has increased, trust in the independence of the media has receded,” he said. Although most media outlets commit to objectivity, members of the party in power still have the perception that the press is trying to bring down their party’s administration.
Regaining Americans’ trust
Restoring faith in the press will be essential for the future of the country. While the current situation is difficult, it is not impossible to recover from. “It will take a long time of the mainstream press doing what it does best, look[ing] for the facts…[and] explain[ing] them with clarity and honesty, and Americans will come to recognize where the reliable information is coming from,” Compton said.
Some argue that the press is already doing this and that their efforts have not succeeded. Baum believes that in order for the media to have more success, the political polarization from which the distrust stems must be reduced. If political polarization can be reduced, “erosion of trust in the press will probably [disappear] with that,” Baum said.
If the effects of Trump’s attacks on the media cannot be reversed, American democracy will suffer the consequences. While Trump did not cause the distrust, he has greatly exacerbated it. In order for the media to serve as an effective watchdog, the American people must once again trust its work.
Image Credit: Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore