What do we really think about the news media? A case study of Jonathan Licht’s displeasure with the recent media layoffs

Many within CNN’s rank and file were surprised by the cuts, especially after what they perceived to be his reassurances that no further layoffs would be needed. In a all-staff meeting in November, Mr. Licht said he stood by his earlier remark that there would be no merger-related layoffs, and “I absolutely would not have said something that I did not believe to be true.” He understood how his comments had hurt his credibility. He acknowledged that he had to win back the credibility he had lost.

In terms of morale, let me just say, you work at a world-renowned news organization alongside the best journalists on the globe. Your jobs have meaning to you. Your job has an impact. You are part of something bigger, of something with tremendous meaning. Nothing has changed about that. I’m the leader you have in me, who has done a lot of your jobs, someone that has your back every step of the way. My loyalty to this organization, journalism and my parent company is more important than anything else.

It is hardly a secret within America’s newsrooms that our profession has lost much of the public’s trust. The percentage of Americans who had a lot of trust in newspapers fell to 35 percent in 2002, from 25 percent a decade earlier, and as of last summer, it was just 16 percent. For TV news, the latest results were even worse. Only 11 percent of Americans think it’s a good thing. Fifty-three percent don’t.

Will delivering the truth be at the center of a news organization’s mission in 2023 if the goal is to not offend those on the other side of the political spectrum?

The results of the Gallup and Knight Foundation annual survey of Americans about how they view the press were bad.

Only 26% of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the news media, Gallup and the Knight Foundation found — the lowest level recorded by the organizations over the last five years.

Meanwhile, Americans are having more difficulty than ever determining what to believe. The increase in information across the media landscape has made it harder to sort good and bad information.

None of this is particularly surprising, though it is, without question, alarming. The media landscape has fractured and it’s not uncommon to now see the same story presented in entirely different ways to different audiences.

Our shared reality has given way to algorithmically rendered realities. Some of the most popular media and political figures in the country actively pollute the information landscape. Manyprofits from propaganda that supports their viewers and attacks the press.

Jones said that it is impossible to sacrifice the truth. “Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. Sometimes the truth might be critical of this group or that group. Rather than trying to keep a scorecard of, well, we had X number of perspectives in this party, and X number of perspectives in this party — it’s gotten a little bit more nuanced than that.”

Jones is correct. The truth isn’t pretty. And the truth can offend. What is also clear is that the truth will offend members of one political party far more than the other. That’s because the sad reality is that one party — operating in an entirely different media ecosystem largely void of fact-based journalism — tells lies and promotes misinformation at a far higher rate than the other.