It's Official: Everybody Hates the Media (and Sage Steele Shows You Why)

With yet another study showing trust in major media outlets hitting a near all-time low, there's no better time than right now for former ESPN star Sage Steele to reveal just how deep the institutional rot really runs.

Over at TIPP Insights, Terry Jones — not the one from Monty Python, I'm reasonably certain — called it a "media tailspin" when he looked at the results of the latest I&I/TIPP poll on the public's trust in major news sources.

TIPP asked more than 1,400 registered voters how much trust they have that traditional or "established" news outlets like the New York Times, CNN, and ABC will "report the news accurately and fairly."

I've seen TIPP ask similar questions before, but what I didn't realize before today is that it conducts the same poll every month. That means that TIPP probably has a better view of the public's trust in the mainstream media than anybody except, perhaps, certain mainstream media accountants keeping track of their dwindling audiences and revenues.

The results ought to make folks in various boardrooms sit up and take notice but, if the past is any guide, that won't happen. The poll found that "Only one-third (34%) trust traditional media, and six in ten (61%) don’t," while "A third (32%) say they have 'little trust,' and another 29% have 'no trust at all.'"

The only way to describe the mainstream media is that it's an industry in crisis — and that brings us to today's revelation from Sage Steele.

Steele told Fox News Digital that her 2021 interview with Presidentish Joe Biden had been "scripted" by ESPN executives. "You will say every word that we write out," Steele says her bosses ordered her. "You will not deviate from the script and go."

"To the word. Every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many editors and executives. Absolutely. I was on script and was told not to deviate," Steele told Fox News Digital. "It was very much ‘This is what you will ask. This is how you will say it. No follow-ups, no follow-ups. Next.' … This went up to the fourth floor, as we said, where all the bosses, the top executives, the decision makers are, the president of our company, the CEO, where they all worked."

Steele said she believes — and so do I — that the White House was given an advance copy of Steele's scripted questions, even though they were softballs.

I'd like to get back to that TIPP poll for a moment.

TIPP found that Americans trust the alternative media — that's sites like Townhall, Daily Caller, and PJ Media — slightly less than they trust the lying lefties who control the mainstream media.

That's distressing to me (and should be to you, too) because integrity and trust are what we have instead of size and reach. Clearly, we need to do more. Here at PJ Media and our five other Townhall sites, we try to earn your trust with each and every report, column, podcast, and video live chat.

You can help us keep doing what we do by becoming one of our VIP or VIP Gold supporters with this massive 50% off SAVEAMERICA promo code. But you can maybe help us most by helping get the word out to your friends and family that PJ Media can be trusted to provide the news and analysis that the mainstream media won't.

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