Our Journalism Crisis: A Conversation

How Do We Fix It?

The public's faith in journalism is at the lowest point in living memory. A recent Gallup poll for the Knight Foundation found that most U.S. adults said they personally have lost trust in the news media in recent years. More than 9 in 10 Republicans feel this way.

The recent uproar over the rush to judgement and media coverage of the Covington Catholic story is the latest damaging controversy. “Boys in Make America Great Again Hats Mob Native Elder at Indigenous Peoples March,” was the first New York Times headline about what happened. But by the next day a much more complex picture began to emerge of what had happened.

"The weekend began to take a long, bad turn for respected news outlets and righteous celebrities," wrote Caitlin Flanagan in a long and thoughtful analysis in The Atlantic about why the media "botched" the story.

The news business is also reeling from years of job losses and budget cuts. Newsrooms at many local and regional newspapers have been decimated. More newspaper layoffs were announced in recent weeks, while many online journalists are losing their jobs at Buzzfeed and Verizon's media division.

Jim and Richard look at journalism's crisis and consider whether readers, viewers and listeners may be partially to blame. We also hear from Aron Pilhofer, professor of Journalism Innovation at the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University, and David Bornstein co-founder of Solutions Journalism Network.

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