You’ve likely heard the name Andy Ngo. An award-winning citizen journalist, Andy is everything corporate media pretends to be: intellectually curious, relentless, and courageous. He’s suffered brutal beatings, death threats, and constant harassment from the Antifa political terrorists simply for daring to report on their violence. The threats follow him wherever he goes. I experienced this first hand earlier this fall, when Common Sense Society and The Virginia Council hosted him at our inaugural Virginia Forum, and we were forced to relocate when two venues in a row caved to Antifa’s threats of violence.
You’d think the legacy media would rally to the defense of a brave journalist like Andy Ngo. You’d think they’d use their perch to decry the “death of free journalism.” He is, after all, one of them—and intimidation, violence, or censorship against one is supposedly a danger to the freedoms of them all.
They haven’t spoken up, of course. And that’s not surprising, given their sharp turn from the principles they espouse. It doesn’t fit “the narrative,” in which only “deplorable” Americans commit insurrection or spread disinformation. The warriors for racial justice and social equity, on the other hand, conduct “mostly peaceful” protests—and all for good reason, of course.
This refusal to cover the news fairly and accurately (and to stand with those who do) encapsulates why the media has lost Americans’ trust. If Americans could trust what was being relayed to them over their television and newspapers, there would be no demand for citizen journalists to pick up their cameras and their phones and take to social media. This February, Fortune reported, “Half of Americans . . . indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.” What explains this historic distrust?
Go anywhere in America and no matter the state, demographics, or political leanings, you will find frustration with the news media. Recent polls reveal that it doesn’t matter if you’re perceived as center-left or center-right: a majority of Americans do not have a positive opinion about any current single source of easily accessible corporate media.
The Return of Yellow Journalism
The widespread distrust points to an old problem we might have thought behind us. The Gilded Age saw improvements in operations, and distribution increased ordinary citizens’ access to news, but with it, a style of reporting known as Yellow Journalism came to dominate. Today, Yellow Journalism is remembered for shamelessly manipulating readers, unethical ties between media providers and their corporate backers, and other assorted corruptions, but at the time it might best have recognized for its power, sensationalism, and profits–a combination that willingly sacrificed quality journalism for cash.
We’ve long thought the ghosts of Yellow Journalism banished. We believed we could overcome the corruptions that pushed media companies to protect their friends and backers in power, while persecuting their rivals under the guise of scandal. And for a time, it really did seem like those ghosts were exorcized. Reporters such as the legendary Walter Cronkite didn’t publicly editorialize the world’s goings on, and viewers didn’t know his personal beliefs. Cronkite, who came to symbolize this era, reported on some of history’s most significant and important events without needing to bend the truth to fit his agenda.
The past 30 years, however, have seen a sea change from seemingly all directions—first from the left, then right, and now even the center cannot hold. Today, ideologically motivated reporters, editors and executives run the industry. Opinion sells, and is no longer shunned. Every story promoted or buried, and every figure glorified, vilified, or nullified, perpetuates the new way.
Coverage of the 2020 riots, for example, was aggressive, inaccurate, and biased. Outlets rushed to frame the narrative, accuracy be damned. Meanwhile, Google’s algorithms heavily manipulated search results, deciding what the average person saw online. The new corporate media works hand-in-glove with the tech monopolists.
Corporate media’s concentration on narrative has led to it becoming the very thing it has accused those like Andy Ngo of being: amateurish, outlandish, predictable, and cowardly. They’ve grown more interested in self promotion and personal crusades than delivering a quality product as a public service. They chose to sacrifice their trust in the hopes of power and profit.
The Future is Local
There could be no rescuing the corporate media. Each quarter brings new layoffs and closures at CNN, The Washington Post, and other outlets that have traded broader trust for maximizing the return on their most committed (i.e., ideological) viewers.
It may now be up to the Fifth Estate of citizen journalists and internet sleuths: Americans who genuinely want to see the truth reach as many of their fellow citizens as possible. Journalists like Andy Ngo, who Common Sense Society was proud to stand by, and Matt Taibi, who was recently honored with the Samizdat Prize and the inaugural Dao Prize for team’s journalism, exemplify the qualities that the public admired in Cronkite and still wants to see in those who report the news.
But the Fourth Estate need not die–it could change, getting smaller, more local, and by it, more responsible to its readers. The failure of national news gives opportunity for local community outlets like The Dallas Express in Texas, broadcasts like Richmond's Morning News with John Reid in Virginia, or daily newsletters like The Pamphleteer in Tennessee to focus on what matters to their neighbors, setting aside the national for the local.
We can be optimistic about the future of the news if we see it as ours again. If we are willing to objective reporters with genuine interest in our communities (be they the local paper or an independent journalist), and detach ourselves from the national narratives, then the all-important metric, trust, will be restored faster than we think.
It won’t be easy to rebuild American news. Nor will it be easy to maintain ethics while making it profitable again. It will take innovation and investment. We should expire combining profit and nonprofit models with transparent editorial policies and renewed ethics, because we know the revitalization won’t come from the top. New models must meet new incentives. Build from the ground-up by starting with the ground right beneath our feet: America, whatever our small part of it may be, and its remarkable people: us.
Austin Stone is the chief operating officer for the Common Sense Society and co-founder of Beck & Stone, a consultancy for cultural renewal and enterprise. His writings have appeared in publications such as Law & Liberty, Newsweek, The American Spectator, American Greatness, and The Federalist.