Margaret Sullivan of WaPo decided to go out and interview her audience, potential and actual, to see how they feel about “the media.” This is what really caught my eye:
How to explain this disconnect? And why had I heard so much intense resentment from some readers by email or phone when that hostility didn’t surface face-to-face? Tom Rosenstiel provided some insight. An author of seminal journalism books and the director of the American Press Institute, Rosenstiel once worked for the Pew Research Center, which has done extensive polling on attitudes about the media.
For many, he said, there’s “the media” (bad) and there’s “my media” (fairly good). That’s also the way many feel about Congress generally, compared with their local representative. “Most Americans like their own media pretty well,” said Rosenstiel. When asked about whether they trust press reports, people are probably thinking about that first category. And who can say what “the media” means to these respondents — are they thinking of Fox News or the New York Times? Are they assessing the local TV station or their Facebook feed?
But what about the people who think I ought to be physically harmed or who call the mainstream media “fake news”? Rosenstiel explains one of the paradoxes: The highest levels of distrust come from the heaviest news consumers. Because they have strong views of their own, they get upset when they don’t see those views reflected in the news they take in. When they see what they consider biased reporting, it angers and frustrates them — and that eats away at trust. Most people, though, are busy living their lives; they’re not thinking about the media intensively, though they may feel, in Rosenstiel’s words, “a general unease or frustration.”
But an adult consumer of information should not be trying to fit the pieces that make up the news into their favorite puzzle, because the information should define its own picture. These are who I consider the least adult in their outlook on life – they’re so frozen into their positions, left or right, that nothing will leverage them out of it. It defines them, and they don’t dare to challenge themselves on their very foundations.
And this is what I find so epicly frustrating about people who doggedly pronounce Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting a hoax. It doesn’t fit into their thesis that more guns makes for a safer society, so they pronounce it a hoax and walk away, angry for no good reason. Good God, you’re going to disbelieve the police, the EMTs, and the parents of the children lost in this tragedy? These are the prime examples of adults who’ve failed the primary test of being an adult – being open to the idea that, as a friend puts it, your shit stinks – that You Can Be Wrong.
But I liked this lady, who takes her responsibilities seriously:
Back at my desk in The Post’s newsroom, I think sometimes about Jennifer Clark, a middle-aged woman with long gray hair whom I interviewed at the Erie County Fair. She works two jobs: one in food service and the other at a printing factory where she operates sewing and cutting machines. Still, she finds the time to read the Buffalo News (which publishes articles every day from The Post and the Times) and to watch TV news. She cares about staying informed. But she’s never sure if she’s getting the truth. On the Trump-Russia story, “I don’t know if they’re stirring the pot or if there’s really something there,” she said. Her requests stayed with me: “Report it as it is, without the twist. Report it without being biased. Tell it all.”
The Jennifer Clarks of the country are the ones we need to reach: They have complicated feelings about the media, but they are not dogmatic in their criticism. And if we follow their advice — if we pursue fairness, depth, accuracy — we may not save a democracy that so many feel is under siege, and we will still probably get our share of obscene phone calls and emails, but we’ll have done a job that’s worth doing. One worth spending a lifetime on, if we get that lucky.
Go Ms. Clark. A little skepticism, properly managed, goes a long way – but it’s clear that she has an open mind, not one riveted shut.
