The essays, analyses and opinions presented as Community Voices express the perspectives of their authors on topics of interest and importance to the community, and are not intended to reflect perspectives on behalf of the Salish Current.
Commentary: Can the media restore its normative town square function to build trust between citizens and institutions?
Last week, in a series of posts on his social network X, outspoken entrepreneur Elon Musk hinted that he might buy the cable television news network MSNBC. Musk, tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, was only half-joking when he hinted at replacing longtime host Rachel Maddow with the podcaster Joe Rogan.
While that shift in personalities and politics might be a bridge too far for current MSNBC audiences, the innovation of swapping out existing television personalities for streamers and podcasters actually checks out. Sports network ESPN pulled off such a move in 2023 when it made way for the high-energy Youtuber Pat McAfee. McAfee has very quickly become a face of the network, shoring up ESPN’s existing audience and revenues but also attracting younger viewers from the digital sphere.
All of this is to say that the massive shifts we are seeing on the political landscape are also apparent in media industries. The irony, of course, is that Donald Trump’s reshaping of the Republican Party is nearly complete. Former Democratic Party members such as Robert F. Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard have found a welcoming environment in Trump’s growing populist coalition, and they are bound to be joined by like-minded defectors in the future.
At the same time, former Republican Party captains such as Mitt Romney, George W. Bush and Liz Cheney have found themselves at growing odds with the new-look G.O.P., with Cheney having famously thrown her lot in with the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the last election after being rebuked by members of her old party. This turn of events culminated in an October campaign stop featuring Cheney and Harris together in a moderated conversation, one that prompted cheers from some corners of the legacy media but also raised eyebrows from those who identified the Cheney brand with the shortcomings of neoconservatism from the past two decades. It also prompted questions about how her political ethos might co-exist with the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.
These twists and turns make for compelling political theater. But they also emphasize the desire of citizens for news media they can reliably turn to amid a rapidly changing world. National and regional media play an outsized role in reporting about these seismic political shifts, though they can also accelerate them. To draw from communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, the medium — as technology, platform or profit model — is the message. Translation: There is more turbulence ahead.
Perhaps there is a better way.
A couple of years ago, this publication hosted the inspiring “Trust 2022” journalism symposium to highlight how newsrooms could chart the troubled waters of our times and re-energize civic connections. Hedrick Smith, the Pulitzer Prize-winner and former New York Times reporter eloquently concluded the event’s proceedings by underscoring the challenges facing journalism. According to Smith, the news media would be better served by moving away from hyper-partisanship and instead look to healing the social divisions in our society.
At the time, his words left me hopeful. Publications such as this one, and the opportunities for public dialogue afforded by the Salish Current’s “Community Voices” reminded me of the media’s normative town square function, bringing citizens together to discuss — and respectfully debate — the policy issues of our time, from environmental stewardship to housing affordability. The key is building trust between citizens and institutions. This region, which has seen sustained growth of local news enterprises in recent years, might serve as a model for the rest of the country. The most hopeful developments in civic journalism are local and grounded in grassroots community involvement.
Yet the national picture gives reason for pause. A curious example brings us back to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. When the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services pointed to the hazards of some sugar cereals, he was quickly fact checked by the New York Times, which took issue with Kennedy’s claim that the U.S. version of Fruit Loops had more artificial ingredients than its Canadian counterpart. The Times noted that the ingredient counts were roughly the same, though Fruit Loops south of the border featured “a lab-made chemical” called butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). While the health impacts of BHT as food additive are not fully known, the chemical has been listed by the David Suzuki Foundation as among the “dirty dozen” to avoid for cosmetics goods, and its usage is highly restricted in the European Union.
Whether it was an example of partisan reporting or honest journalistic oversight, the fact check was widely shared in social media circles as an example of why some Americans are losing faith in legacy media. But it’s also symbolic of skirmishes that lie ahead as the great realignment of politics and media continues unabated, and the growing hopes for news enterprises that can rise above.
— By Derek Moscato
Also read in Salish Current:
• ‘Lyra’ sheds light on power, dangers of journalism, July 14, 2023
• Local journalism is key for healthy communities: forum, March 18, 2022
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