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“I don’t trust any of them. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are all crooks and are just in it for themselves.”
I heard this during a recent conversation with an individual who went on to explain why he despises all politicians but really likes his sitting governor and would vote for him again. While this struck me as contradictory, to say the least, it also gave me pause and got me thinking about the issue of trust when it comes to local broadcast news.
Our deeply divided nation no longer has a common frame of understanding when it comes to the daily news. The myriad news sources we have all come to rely on have splintered and even warped our sense of what is fact, what is indisputable and who we trust. The overlay of opinion and commentary so prevalent on cable news and social media has further confused the definition of “news” and created far too many pundits and so-called experts for our own good.
And swimming in the middle of this opinion ocean are local TV newsrooms attempting to inform their communities without fear or favor. For the most part, local television news does a respectable job of reporting without injecting personal opinion. There are exceptions, of course, but, for the most part, the individuals working in newsrooms across the country make every effort to give us just the facts and dig in — when they are given the time and resources — to help uncover
