
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Uri Berliner, a senior business editor at NPR, recently shed light on a significant factor contributing to journalism’s current challenges: a decline in trust among Americans. Reflecting on his nearly decade-long tenure at NPR, which spanned from Donald Trump’s initial presidential campaign to the present, Berliner outlined various reasons behind this erosion of trust. He contends that NPR’s perceived leftward shift, lack of transparency, ideological conformity, and emphasis on diversity of identity over other values have played a role in steering the organization off course.
Berliner’s observations resonate with broader trends in contemporary journalism. A 2023 Gallup survey revealed that only 32 percent of Americans have some or a great deal of trust in journalism—a concerning trend for an industry tasked with informing the public. This lack of trust may stem from the disproportionate political leanings within newsrooms, with a mere 3.4 percent of journalists identifying as Republicans compared to 36 percent as Democrats, according to a recent Syracuse University study.
This political imbalance has alienated many Americans, as evidenced by NPR’s shifting listener demographics. In 2011, 49 percent of NPR’s audience identified as moderate or conservative, but by 2023, this figure had dropped to 33 percent, with the majority now leaning liberal or very liberal—a trend suggesting a significant exodus of non-liberal listeners from the network.
So, how did journalism reach this point? Many perceive a lack of fairness in today’s news coverage, with concerns about entrenched liberal biases, favoritism toward progressive agendas, and condescension toward traditional or conservative viewpoints. Berliner joins a growing chorus of journalists, including Bari Weiss, James Bennet, Adam Rubenstein, and Juan Williams, who have publicly lamented the departure from journalistic principles. However, whether Berliner will continue at NPR remains uncertain, as others before him have either left their positions voluntarily or were ousted.
While left-leaning tendencies among journalists are not new, the emergence of a new ideological paradigm in newsrooms during the Trump era is concerning. Today’s journalism appears more focused on political correctness and advancing specific agendas rather than upholding traditional journalistic values such as fairness, independence, and truth-seeking. This shift has fostered a rigid orthodoxy that dictates acceptable viewpoints while marginalizing dissenting voices—a departure from journalism’s fundamental role of informing rather than instructing its audience.
the Ridgewood blog has a brand-new twitter account, we tweet good sh$t
https://twitter.com/tRidgewoodblog
#news #follow #media #trending #viral #newsupdate #currentaffairs #BergenCountyNews #NJBreakingNews #NJHeadlines #NJTopStories
News Flash! Traditional journalistic values such as fairness, independence, and truth-seeking never existed in practice.
So very true the media is done. They will Exaggerate the story. That’s why the news has editors, anything for ratings
Exaggerate …. or just outright fabricate and lie.
Of course we don’t trust media these days. You can’t believe anything they report
CNN is nothing but anti-Trump propaganda.
If Trump didn’t exist, the media would have to invent him. Every second talking about Trump is a precious second they don’t have to talk about Biden.
Even Bill Maher is tired of CNN
https://nypost.com/2024/04/16/media/bill-maher-rips-cnn-trump-bashing-commentators-as-boring/amp/
I see our resident CNN/MSNBC watching downvoter is busy on this one.