Washington, DC – Prominent journalists and managers of different news organizations were confronted with the question of how the media restores confidence among the American people.
Semafor, the digital news platform founded in 2022 by Legacy Media veterans Ben Smith and Justin B. Smith (no relationship), held a top on Thursday with a stacked line-up of new chefs and personalities in the ideological spectrum to discuss the current state of the media.
The top, called “Innovation to Restore Trust in News”, began with Gallup chairman Jim Clifton, who sounded the alarm on the newest polls that showed that only 31% of Americans trust the media, a “big deal” or a “reasonable amount”, emphasize those who only have “a lot” of trust.
“The current state of media in this country is in last place or for second place compared to any other institution … Someone has to solve this,” Clifton said.
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CEO of CNN, Mark Thompson, said that “where” to the brand of serious journalism of the network instead of leaning on the opinion, the company will eventually send out of financial struggles. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
CEO of CNN, Mark Thompson, said that he himself did not trust “mass media”, referring to his instinct as a journalist to question everything.
“I think I would rather have a doubtful public than an audience that is a bit different with media,” said Thompson. “I think, you know, you know, a box of Kleenex to dry our eyes about the loss of traditional trust and try to find out how they can almost rebuild a relationship for adults instead of considering our audience as sheep who have to trust and believe everything we say.”
With regard to people’s confidence, Thompson, however, it was that the solution of CNN “where” to his decades-long brand like a hub for news and “trying very hard to be accurate”, focusing on the straight news instead of opinions.
New York Times Executive editor Joe Kahn said that a way in which he thinks his paper is looking for trust is to let consumers get to know the “personality” of his journalists with on the camera or podcast performances to discuss their reporting and newsgents process. He removed the polls from the polls that broadly show the growing distrust in the media, and insists that the data is ‘pretty defective’.
Semafor’s Ben Smith, a former columnist for Times, asked Kahn if he felt the need to look for conservative journalists, because the newsroom “is about as liberal as you would expect.”
“I don’t really think about going out and hire conservatives that I think about going out and hire liberals,” Kahn replied. “I want to hire more people who come from different geographies, different personal experiences, different backgrounds, different schools, different education, whatever it is, because you are right, that is actually part of your own personal experience where you grew up, with who you grew up, or you are part of a religious family, you have a military experience that you can really open.
“That is not the same as saying that I go looking for someone who voted for Trump and put them by my staff. As a newsroom I don’t think that’s exactly the right stimulus,” Kahn added.
New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn insisted on looking for journalists with different backgrounds and experiences in his newsroom without looking for individuals, simply because they are Trump voters. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
NBCUIVERSAL NEWS GROUP chairman Cesar Conde suggested that the solution for combating media is investing distrust in local media.
“The underlying power of a democracy is a strong and free and independent press. And the backbone of our media industry is our local stations,” said Conde. “So for us as a broadcast network, the backbone of our company is our local TV stations. We have a huge footprint in local TV and local digital in the entire country, and what we have found is that that is actually a huge competitive advantage for us, not just for building trust, hopefully over time, but also for reporting.
NBCUIVERSAL NEWS Group chairman Cesar Conde suggested that more investments in local news are the path for the media to earn back the confidence of Americans. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
NPR CEO Katherine Maher turned the tables and urged media to ‘trust your audience’.
“We keep talking about how we can ensure that we are familiar. It actually trusts your audience. They are smart people,” said Maher. “You know, that was one of the things we learned at Wikimedia, is like, Toon our work, be very clear where we have the information that is there. Be confident that the public knows exactly the limits of how they will use this information … at NPR, I think our goal is not to be trusted. It is trust.”
She explained: “If someone who did not come because of journalism, journalism is really remarkable in terms of a reasonably self -regulating industry. Journalists who do not practice the vessel are known to their colleagues because they may be a bit lazy or sloppy or you don’t know what a story does not like a certain part of an interview … Not the quotes.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher said that the purpose of her news organization “cannot be trusted. It is reliable.” (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier said that his approach to journalism is ‘tough but honest’ and that removing ’emotion’ from reporting plays an important role in earning trust among Americans.
“What I think more people have to do, and what I try to do and have tried to do is to get the emotion out, take the emotion by covering the news,” Baier said. “And I think that over the years over the years has been a problem and that some people are emotional about it and half of the audience lost.”
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Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker expressed the importance of taking emotion from reporting in the same way and agree with the idea that Washington journalists too much “freak” about President Trump.
“The stories are extraordinary that come out every day. And you know, if the diary, we will cover them. We don’t add a spider, we don’t add emotion because I think these stories speak for themselves. And I think it’s too early to say if the instruction is justified,” Tucker said. “There is no room for emotion in the journal … We try to provide people with good information, information they can use, that is valuable, that is useful, and if we start to bring emotion into it, it becomes less valuable. So I think our strength is particularly our strength, the emotion takes in, and it can be different for other stores, but not for us.”
Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier and Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker suggested that “emotion” was injected into media reporting, distrust among Americans. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
Tucker emphasized that the journalists of her paper are “observers, not participants” and asked them to “check their prejudices”, so that their personal views have no influence on their reports.
She also emphasized ‘radically focused on the audience’.
“Don’t think about what the rest of the newsroom is going to think? Or is this going to win a prize? … What will other journalists think? That can’t be the motivational force behind journalism. It should be- what do we do that is useful for readers? What do we tell them?” And I think the fourth what you would say about it is. I think especially in a place like Washington, where you are in this kind of weak bubble that everyone has to say about it, it is very easy to be afraid of the consequences of something that you will publish. But I don’t think you’re doing that.
“I mean, a good example of that was the Biden Age -Story we have done“She went on.” Some of my colleagues in New York warned me that this would lead to a pretty strong response. I have no idea how strong, but anyway, but I am very happy that I did not stop to think about it because it was an important piece of journalism, and we have published it, you know, like us. “
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Other controversial interviews from the top were former MSNBC-Gastheer Mehdi Hasan, Sirius XM-Gastheer Megyn Kelly, and FCC chairman Brendan Carr.
The Semafor top was held in an intimate hall in the Gallup building of Washington DC where the Semafor DC office is located. Participants were largely composed of media journalists from various news broadcasts, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and the Daily Beast and Semafor journalists and staff.
Among those who were also seen in the audience, former CNN CEO Chris were light and journalist Mark Halperin.
