In today’s political climate, it is more important than ever for citizens of the USA to have a trustworthy and reliable news source.
Unfortunately for a lot of citizens, that news source is primarily an influencer, podcaster, or some random user on a social media site. Since the news many of those “sources” get isn’t typically from respected journalists or vetted sources, much of it ends up being misinformation. So why do people tend to ignore news sites for apps that are famous for spreading fake news? The simple answer: people don’t trust news sites anymore.
A giant website in the news sphere, The Washington Post, owned by Tech giant Jeff Bezos–-has lost an estimated $100 million in profit for 2024. Journalists have been fleeing to other competitors, and long-term readers are canceling their subscriptions. Why? Because American citizens simply do not trust billionaires. There is a growing fear of an oligarchy forming in the U.S., especially following former president Joe Biden’s farewell speech where he warned Americans of the potentiality of rich people controlling the political climate. Worries seem to only be intensifying as more Billionaires invest themselves into the government. Mostly shown from an abundance of America’s richest citizens being present at Trump’s inauguration, and donating to specific campaigns.
When the media we consume is controlled by people who can only benefit from suppressing news, our media and our journalists become untrustworthy. Bezos decided to block an endorsement of Kamala Harris during the crucial days leading up to the election, leading a Washington Post-employed Pulitzer Prize winning-cartoonist to draft up a political cartoon of a gaggle of billionaires (including Bezos himself), bowing down to the Trump administration. After her cartoon was denied, she decided to quit. Stating to NPR, “I’ve never ever, since I’ve worked for the Post in 2008, been not allowed to comment on certain topics by having cartoons being killed. We have the freedom to say what we want to say.” Another journalist left on March 10. Ruth Marcus was a columnist and editor. She left because the publisher killed a column she wrote that criticized their recent transformation of the opinions section. Even though she’s worked there for 40 years, there’s some transgressions that journalists simply won’t conform to.
It isn’t just the Washington Post, though. Gallup found that only about 31% of Americans trust mainstream news a great deal, while 36% do not trust it and 33% only trust it slightly. So, if people aren’t getting their news from respected sources. Where are they getting it from?
One answer is a recently-rising independent journalist: Aaron Parnas. Once a staunch Republican, Parnas has dedicated his time to growing a social media following, on both Tiktok and Instagram, with over 3 million followers to report on current news and promote democrat ideologies. On his Substack, Parnas addressed the apparent issues with mainstream media. “The mainstream media claims to be a watchdog of democracy, yet time and again, it has proven itself complicit in propping up those in power… My role is to make sure you have the facts–whether they challenge your beliefs, make you uncomfortable, or expose the hard truth.” Parnas promised.
This statement expresses how a lot of citizens feel. Mainstream media simply isn’t trusted anymore. How can we expect large corporations to report the truth if the truth doesn’t get clicks? Netizens express a clear desire for a news source that is either unbiased or simply states the news without any romanticized language.
The truth is, the news feeds almost exclusively on shock-value or fear-mongering. With the Trump-era in full effect, left-leaning news outlets capitalize on headlines that invoke fear and anger. One example of this is the over-reporting of plane crashes after the devastating crash that happened in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29. Since it was a hot topic, left-leaning news outlets began to overreport on plane crashes which caused a lot of fear within their readers. In reality, January 2025 had a record LOW number of plane crashes. CNN reported only 62 plane crashes.
It isn’t only the Left, though. Right-leaning news outlets famously reported that schools were “putting litter boxes” into bathrooms for students who identify as cats. These news articles were incredibly misleading, (The school DID buy litter, but it was exclusively for the event a school lockdown happened so the children still had a method of using the bathroom.) And I still hear Republicans use the ‘litter box’ argument when discussing public schools, despite it being misinformation.
This, among many other reasons, represents voters’ transgressions against mainstream media. It also begs the question, how much profit and trust will news sources lose until they finally decide to listen? More importantly, will the trend toward independent journalists continue?
