Since the end of lockdown, trust in mainstream news has plummeted.
Who can blame people?
Honestly, when you have huge news networks like Fox, CNN and NBC settling defamation lawsuits based on things they reported, how can anyone trust these networks?
In April of 2023, you had Fox News settling with Dominion Voting Systems for $800 million in what AP called a “stunning settlement.” This suit is what caused long time anchor and highest-rated Tucker Carlson to leave the company.
The lawsuit was over the cable-networks statements over proven-false election claims. Fox News falsely claimed Dominion switched votes in the 2020 election, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
The biggest conservative news network was caught spreading conspiracy theories. Their competitors must be better… right?
According to The National Trial Lawyers, three years before the Fox News lawsuit, CNN settled a $275 million defamation case with Nick Sandmann, a Covington Catholic student falsely portrayed in a viral video.
In June 2024, NBC also settled a federal defamation suit brought by Dr. Mahendra Amin, a Georgia gynecologist falsely accused of performing mass hysterectomies on ICE detainees, as reported by NPR. The claims aired in 2020 on MSNBC shows hosted by Nicolle Wallace, Chris Hayes, and Rachel Maddow.
These lawsuits have cost networks over $300 million in settlements—and counting.
So why does this matter? People will just ignore it and continue with their lives, right? That’s completely wrong.
This is such a big deal because if we cannot trust our media, then who do we trust? The politicians?
The news is supposed to be the outlet for the truth. People look to people like Lester Holt, David Muir and Megyn Kelly, to name a few, for news. If these people who are trained journalists, who have gone through classes telling them that they need to be truthful, cannot be trusted, then who can we trust?
If this were in our grandparents’ or parents’ time, we wouldn’t have any other sources of information.
Thankfully, we live in the 21st century, the age of fast information.
We now have access to people on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other social media who tell us the news without bias.
Now, these people need more vetting to ensure they are unbiased, but you can usually tell if it is based on how they talk about certain politicians and issues.
You have people like Lisa Remillard (@lisaremillard), Under The Desk News (@underthedesknews) and Link Lauren (@itslinklauren), who are independent journalists on TikTok who cover breaking news. There are also several more, but these are some of the biggest.
These three people represent different sides of the aisle. Under The Desk News leans more towards the Democratic side, Link usually sides with the Republican side, and Lisa is a middle-ground reporter.
These are people who have become popular on TikTok because they have become trusted sources of information for people like Gen Z.
This is both good and bad.
It’s good because these people talk directly to the people at home. They don’t have an overseer and can say what they want without following a script written by a billionaire investor.
The bad thing is that sometimes they have misinformation, and when they do…it’s bad. Or they will sell out to a political party. Back when the DNC was going on in 2024, popular TikTok users were losing followers because they were paid by the Democratic Party to try to get people to vote for Kamala Harris.
When Karoline Levitte announced that there would be a seat in the press conferences for independent journalists, I was thrilled.
Why?
This shows that people in the Government are paying attention. They are noticing the shift to more independent people and want them to have the same access to information as the legacy media.
You have Americans who turn to people like Candace Ownes, who is known for being controversial and very conservative, because while she is a conservative, she will tell you what the hard facts are.
Why?
Because you have people like Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity who have become known for spewing conspiracy theories and letting their relationships with politicians come between them and the truth.
We live in a world of fast information, where it seems as if the only thing that matters is getting the news out fast. You always want to be the one to break news and be the one people go to when something breaks. You just have to fact-check first.
That is who to blame for all of this—people who do not fact-check. We live in a post-Watergate world where people’s trust in media has slowly dwindled for decades. This is not the time for journalists to be lazy and just go with what will get them the most clicks.
The world of journalism is a slippery slope because you have to be fast and factual. It is a hard medium to find, but it is one you can do. Many Americans would rather read something true and fact-checked than something that is put together to be first.
So, be cautious and factual in your reporting. Then, maybe we can regain people’s trust in journalists.
