There’s been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the “threat to democracy” and rising “polarization” in America. “Oh, woe is us” has been a popular refrain on the left since 2016, who believe that the only way they can win is if they scare the voters into thinking the American republic has one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel.
It’s not true, of course. The hysteria they’re generating may be heartfelt but it’s based on a will o’ the wisp — a self-created mirage that becomes a bigger and bigger threat the less the American voter believes them.
The news media plays a huge role in creating and generating this hysteria. And the media isn’t fooling anyone. An AP-NORC poll released prior to World Press Freedom Day shows why the American media isn’t worth the support they’re demanding from their readers.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults say the news media is increasing political polarization in this country, and just under half say they have little to no trust in the media’s ability to report the news fairly and accurately, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
The poll, released before World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday, shows Americans have significant concerns about misinformation — and the role played by the media itself along with politicians and social media companies in spreading it — but that many are also concerned about growing threats to journalists’ safety.
“The news riles people up,” said 53-year-old Barbara Jordan, a Democrat from Hutchinson, Kan. “You’re better off Googling something and learning about it. I trust the internet more than I do the TV.”
Forty-five percent say they have some degree of confidence in the news media’s ability to report the news fully and fairly, but only 16% say they are very confident.
Four in 10 say the press is doing more to hurt American democracy, while only about 2 in 10 say the press is doing more to protect it. An additional 4 in 10 say neither applies.
Partisan cable news outlets and social media platforms have driven the problem by conditioning many Americans to see one another as enemies, said Joe Salegna, a Republican who lives on Long Island, New York.
“I think it’s tearing this country apart,” Salegna, 50, told the AP. “Since the 2016 election I think it’s gotten a lot worse.”
“Everyone tells a different story. The media does nothing but stir up fear,” said Janis Fort, a retired 71-year-old Republican who lives in Navarre, Fla. “For me, and for most of the people I know, we feel like we’re totally in the dark.”
Overall, the AP-NORC poll shows that about six in ten say the news media bears blame for the spread of misinformation, and a similar percentage also said it has a large amount of responsibility for addressing it. As usual with these polls, there is no definition of “misinformation,” leaving partisans free to create their own notion of which side is misleading the country.
Another survey released last February from Gallup showed that half of Americans indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform, or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.
Eventually, no one will believe any news source whether traditional media or online publications. I, for one, hope I’m not around to see it.
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