Jeff Bezos admits that legacy media is dying!

WASHINGTON (PNN) - November 5, 2024 - The hard truth: Amerikans don’t trust the news media is the October 28 op-ed by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post. It purports to explain why the Post is not endorsing either presidential candidate for the first time in 36 years.

The hard truth: Amerikans don’t trust news media.

In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, media have managed to fall below Congress. The profession is now the least trusted of all. Something it is doing is clearly not working.

Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.

Likewise with newspapers. Media must be accurate, and it must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but media are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe media are biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for media’s long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. Media must work harder to control what it can control to increase its credibility.

Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias; a perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one. Eugene Meyer, publisher of the Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, thought the same, and he was right. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move media very far up on the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction.

Lack of credibility isn’t unique to the Post. Other newspapers have the same issue. It’s a problem not only for media, but also for the nation. Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources, which can quickly spread misinformation and deepen divisions. The Washington Post and The New York Times win prizes, but increasingly they talk only to a certain elite. More and more, they talk to themselves.

Bezos says he will not push his personal interest; he will also not allow the Post to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance - overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs - not without a fight. It’s too important and the stakes are too high. Now more than ever the world needs a credible, trusted, independent voice. The Post and other media will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and some will be new inventions. Criticism will be part and parcel of anything new. This is the way of the world. None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it. Many of the finest journalists you’ll find anywhere work at the Washington Post, and they work painstakingly every day to get to the truth. They deserve to be believed.