THE EROSION OF TRUST IN THE MEDIA

by H. N. Burdett

There has been a steep plunge in public confidence in the media from the time of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite until today.

During World War II, from his reporting of Hitler's Anschluss to the bombing of London and overall progress of the war all the way through to the liberation of concentration camps, Murrow's reports offered a voice of reason and calm assurance that was as important to his listeners in the United States as Prime Minister Winston Churchill's words were to the people of Great Britain.

Murrow's honesty and integrity caught and held the attention of Americans after the war when he became the most important pioneer of television news: exposing Senator Joe McCarthy's twisting of truth and outright lies that led to the Wisconsin senator's censure, as well as spearheading the golden age of network documentaries, a hallmark of quality reporting unsurpassed in the annals of either television or print journalism.

Building on Murrow's lofty legacy, Walter Cronkite reported such milestone events of the two decades when he sat at the CBS anchor desk -- the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the landing of the first man on the moon, and his memorable conclusion that the Vietnam war could not be won. In 1972, an Oliver Quayle poll revealed that it was neither the President, nor any member of Congress or the Supreme Court, nor for that matter a brilliant research scientist, or a philosoper but rather Walter Cronkite who was "the most trusted man in America."

Today the peak of Olympus reached by both Murrow and Cronkite is enshrouded by clouds of doubt and distrust. News reporters are frequently enough viewed with the same suspicion, disdain and even derision once reserved for used car and aluminum siding salesmen and three-card Monte dealers.

Results of the 10th annual Edelman Trust Barometer shockingly reveals that public confidence in news coverage has nosedived from 48 percent to 31 percent; in newspapers, from 46 to 32; in television news, from 44 to 20 percent.

Edelman bills itself as the world's largest independent public relations company, with 3,400 employees working from 54 offices around the world. According to the firm, this trust and credibility survey consisted of 25-minute telephone interviews conducted among 4,875 individuals in two age categories, 25 to 34 years old and 35 to 65, in 22 countries. All of those interviewed, according to the company, met the following criteria: college educated, household income within the top quarter in their country; read or watched business and/or news media at least several times a week; follow public policy news at least several times a week.

Upon closer examination, however, the Edelman survey could very well reflect factors over which the media has little or no control, such as the disastrous global economy and Wall Street behavior from incompetence to outright greed and fraud, as well as the eighth year of the so-called 'war on terrorism" which finds U.S. troops mired in South Asia, with neither a plausible definition of what might constitute victory nor even a reasonable facsimile of an exit strategy.

In other words, the survey may demonstrate a textbook example of scapegoating that goes all the way back to a line in Sophocles' Antigone: "No one loves the messenger who brings bad news." Which contemporary phrasemakers have converted to the more direct: "Kill the messenger!"

There are those who believe that when the United States, the quintessential good guys, is revealed to have used barbaric methods from waterboarding to sexual humiliation to squeeze information from enemy combatants, or when the economy tanks and the

princes of the universe, the movers and shakers of the financial industry, walk away from the debris they caused, laughing all the way to the bank, there is, or should be, a public perception that none of this could have happened had the media been doing its job.

Thomas Jefferson's warning that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance is a responsibility the public, with ample justification, places squarely on the shoulders of the Fourth Estate -- the representatives of the people in a free society. Jefferson also said

that "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

In a free society, a free press is not a luxury, it is a necessity. When the media drops its guard and lets the public down, it is a sin those of a certain age could absolutely not in their wildest dreams imagine Murrow or Cronkite committing.