The Biggest Media Fails of 2024 | 1.1.25
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What led to the decline in trust in media in 2024?
2024 saw Americans' trust in the legacy media hit an all-time low, with only 31% of people saying they have a great deal or even a fair amount of trust in the biggest outlets that bring us our news. Among independent voters, that number is only 27%. In fact, according to Gallup, today, the media is the least trusted civic and political institution, behind even Congress, the group that was previously at the bottom of the barrel. In this episode of Morning Wire, Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham looks at the bungled stories, bad reporting, and in some cases, outright deceptions that contributed to media distrust in 2024. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. And this is a special edition of Morning Wire. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham joins us now to look back at the year's biggest media fails that are contributing to the public's record low trust. But Megan, before we get into that, can you give us a quick overview on where the industry stands now?
Along with some of the controversies and corrections, there was also a lot of contraction this year in the news industry, and that's notable because it was an election year.
What were the significant layoffs in the media industry?
Yeah, very true. And I do have to say that the media landscape right now looks, well, bad. It looks really bad. If you'll remember, Georgia, right before the start of the year, we saw substantial layoffs at The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR. And as you said, that's not what you expect to see heading into a major campaign year when media revenues typically tend to increase. Then if we go back to the beginning of the year, in January, the Los Angeles Times cut more than 20% of its newsroom. Time Magazine cut 15%. And that kind of bad news just continued throughout 2024. By the summer, CNN had laid off 100 people, and they're now reportedly planning to lay off hundreds more. Comcast may sell MSNBC.
And neither of those developments should be surprising when you look at some of the cable news ratings. To put it bluntly, they're a dumpster fire. According to Nielsen data, MSNBC is still down by more than half of what it was averaging up to election night. And CNN is down by slightly less than half, though it didn't have as far to fall because it was already at the bottom of the pack. And even though I will say both left and right are showing media distrust, so you do have to take that into account when you look at some of those numbers from polling outfits like Gallup. You also have to take into account that Fox News's ratings are way up this year.
How did media coverage impact public perception of political violence?
They're now beating the ratings of the other cable news outlets combined, suggesting that a lot of former CNN and MSNBC viewers are flocking there.
So I want to get into some of the major doozies that are likely driving a lot of the legacy media's poor performance. Just looking back at this year, what are some of the biggest standouts to you?
You know, for me, the biggest one wasn't an issue where there was clear deception or inaccuracy, but just some really appallingly callous coverage of the most momentous moment of the campaign. And that was the response to the attempt on President-elect Donald Trump's life at that rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th. That very same night, ABC viewers heard George Stephanopoulos and Martha Raddatz in part blame the victim.
President Trump and his supporters have contributed to this violent rhetoric as well. Well, absolutely, George.
And then on the print front, the day after Butler, The Atlantic ran a piece that said that, and I'm quoting, the bloodshed Trump has done so much to incite against others has touched him as well. In September, of course, there was a second assassination attempt at Trump's golf course, and you heard similar rhetoric from major media. Almost immediately after news of that second assassination attempt broke, MSNBC anchor Alex Witt asked political analyst Elise Jordan this.
Do you expect to hear anything from the Trump campaign about toning down the rhetoric, toning down the violence? Or would that be atypical of the former president?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What led to the decline in trust in media in 2024?
0:04–1:15
2
What were the significant layoffs in the media industry?
1:15–2:38
3
How did media coverage impact public perception of political violence?
2:38–8:12
4
What were the major media fails regarding President Biden's mental fitness?
8:12–11:28
5
How did legacy media respond to misleading narratives about Biden?
11:28–17:02
6
What can we learn from the media's performance in 2024?
17:02–18:21
Speakers
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