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Here’s a conundrum: when you lie to people constantly, berate them if they dare to have an opinion you don’t approve of and openly pocket millions from notorious liars who want you to lie for them, people stop trusting you. Can anyone explain it? Certainly it’s a mystery to the legacy media.
Public trust in mainstream media has dropped by eight per cent in the past two years, a new report shows.
The report, by Auckland University of Technology’s Journalism, Media and Democracy Research Centre, shows nationwide trust in the media has fallen from 53 per cent in 2020 to 45 per cent in 2022. […]
The results follow a similar trend internationally, in which public trust in the media has dropped to 50 per cent worldwide from 56 per cent in 2020.
Is anyone besides the legacy media surprised by this? The only real surprise is that even half the people still trust the media.
They lie and we know they lie. They lied about the possibility of a lab leak as the origin of the pandemic. They lied about the efficacy of lockdowns. They lied about the protesters in Wellington and Melbourne. They lied about Judith Collins. They lied about Siouxsie Wiles.
On the larger stage, they lied about every war in the last half-century. They lied about British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. They lied and lied and lied about Donald Trump. They lied about “mostly peaceful protests”. They lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop. They lied about high-profile rape cases. They lied about Kyle Rittenhouse and they lied about the Covington Kids.
I could go on all day, but you get the point.
If only the legacy media would.
The researchers also found misinformation and disinformation were contributing factors to a lack of trust in media.
The Disinformation Project, which has been tracking misinformation and disinformation, found conspiracy theories about Covid-19 have escalated since the arrival of the Delta variant in 2021.
No, they’re not talking about the conspiracy theories and disinformation peddled by the legacy media: they’re clearly incapable of that level of self-awareness. Of course, only a fool would say that conspiracy theories and disinformation are the sole province of the legacy media.
But it’s the very lies of the legacy media that do so much to enable the nutty fringe on social media. When the legacy media openly lie, change their narrative on a dime without the slightest acknowledgement and furiously suppress legitimate doubt and dissent, of course some very poisonous mushrooms are going to sprout in the media-imposed darkness.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant – but the legacy media refuse to let the slightest glimmer of open debate enlighten the public sphere.
But the real howler in this elitist jeremiad is this:
One of the study’s co-authors, AUT senior lecturer Dr Merja Myllylahti, said a major reason for the decline in trust, and increase of aggression and attacks on journalists, was a perceived link between the media and the government.
The government’s Public Interest Journalism Fund, a $55 million dollar boost to New Zealand media, has often been the target of criticism.
“The general trust in the government has declined, and we now have funding of the news by the government, so a lot of people perceive that the media is in the government’s pocket,” she said.
This is the footer of the article:
Those two statements are incompatible. You can’t be funded by the government – any government – and claim to be “fiercely independent”. To paraphrase Robert Heinlein, a government-funded journalist is an incompetent whore. And that’s doing a disservice to sex workers.
Myllylahti said there was no single solution for journalists to regain the public’s trust.
“If I knew, I would sell my answer to the media and become a billionaire,” she said.
Well, get ready to retire early and buy that super yacht you’ve always dreamed about, because here it is:
Just tell the fucking truth.
Certainly don’t tell staggering porkies like this with a straight face:
Stuff head of news Mark Stevens said […] “We have a strong history of holding the powerful to account, including the Government, and reporting without fear or favour,” Stevens said.
Importantly, Stevens said, funding from New Zealand on Air via the Public Interest Journalism Fund was a minuscule fraction of Stuff‘s investment in news-gathering and journalism over more than 150 years.
Stuff
OK, but what about the last two years? It’s difficult to quantify, publicly available data being so opaquely Byzantine, but it’s certain that a significant slice of the $55 million of government funding has been trousered by Stuff.
But, if the government funding really is a “minuscule fraction” of Stuff’s income, then stop taking it. If you’re telling the truth about that “minuscule fraction”, then you clearly don’t need it.
After all, the BFD gets by without a single cent of government money. Do we get things wrong sometimes? Of course. But our mistakes are honest: we owe nothing to anyone but our subscribers. BFD contributors even openly disagree with one another: it’s called “debate” and “free speech”. The legacy media ought to try it.
Most importantly, put your money where your supposed principles are, Stuff. Then, maybe, Kiwis might begin to have a reason to trust you again.
