The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Do You Trust The Media? A Major New US Study Raises Important Questions For All Of Us.

Episode Date: August 5, 2020

If it's down to Harris or Rice -- whose your pick for Joe Biden's running mate?Plus a big new study on the media.

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily we're at hump day hump day here in week 21 wed, halfway through the week already. And kind of a special program today. We've touched on this issue in the past, and that is attitudes towards the media, how they've been changing in light of the last couple of years, and I guess in many ways how they've been changing this year as a result of COVID-19 and the whole issue of the coverage of the coronavirus. So we're going to draw upon a major new study. It's a huge study that's being done in the United States by the Knight Foundation but it's questioning the issue of whether or not people are losing faith in an objective

media. And I know some of you have strong feelings about this because you've written to me about it over these last 21 weeks. So we'll get to that in a minute. But first I wanted to let you in on one thing that the podcast is going to try and do in the weeks and I guess months ahead. Because I think we, A, we can't leave this story, COVID-19, and B, we can't really leave the American election story. Because in many ways the two are kind of linked. Plus, it's a fascinating story. And here's one of the things we're going to try and do in coverage of this. We're going to try and break it down on a weekly basis,

almost weekly, because we're kind of into it now. Usually Labor Day is when the American election really gets going for those final couple of months to the early November election. But one of the things Bruce Anderson and I have talked about, you know, Bruce, chairman of Abacus Data, has been on the podcast a number of times already and has helped guide us through some of the big issues and was great last week. I remember we were talking about the appearance by Prime Minister Trudeau in front of the Parliamentary Committee looking into the WE controversy. We did a special on that last week and it got, from what I've seen anyway, really good numbers in terms of the podcast last week. So Bruce, it was actually Bruce's idea, why don't we try and do something on a fairly regular basis, almost weekly, if not weekly, where we take a certain issue and discuss it in terms of the U.S. election.

And so that's what we're going to do. We still have to actually discuss how we're going to do this in terms of how we're going to break it up and kind of come up with the different issues surrounding the U.S. election, but try to do it in a way that doesn't just kind of mimic the American media. Try and find different ways of doing some of the issues. And some of the things we should be thinking about as we watch from outside the U.S. But, you know, we're always interested in these things.

I mean, the current guessing game is who's going to be Joe Biden's vice presidential pick. Actually, I know the answer to that question. Right? I mean, I know. You know. We all know who it's going to be, right? Okay, we don't know, but we all have our educated guesses. It seems to be down, at least when you watch the so-called experts in the U.S., certainly in the last 24 hours.

I mean, there's been some up and down on the number of candidates over the last little while. But in the last 24 hours, it seems to be the suggestion that it's down to two people. It's either California Senator Kamala Harris, who ran for the nomination, started off quite well, but then kind of didn't do so well, but is a powerful senator from California, has a lot of the credentials. I mean, obviously Joe Biden says it will be a woman, A, and the assumption is it's going to be a woman of color. Senator Kamala Harris is said to be

one of two that it's boiled down to. Now, who knows whether that's just spin or not, but the two are Senator Kamala Harris and Susan Rice, who was President Obama's National Security Advisor in the last Obama administration. She'd also been in an earlier Obama administration, the UN ambassador. Now, if it is those two on the final short list,

who do I think it'll be? A number of you have written, asked me who do I think it'll be. Not that I know. Not that my opinion means anything on these things. But if I had to choose between the two, and I think it's a tough choice, they're both very good candidates, I would pick the one who I know who's actually a friend of mine, and that's Susan Rice.

Why, you say, is she a friend of mine? Well, because her husband used to be my boss. Ian Cameron used to be one of the senior producers at the National. He's a Canadian. And Susan met Ian as they were going to school, going to university. And they fell in love and got married. They've got kids. They've taken turns being the one who's kind of given up their job to support the other's career.

Susan came to Canada when Ian was a major player in the National and the Journal. Goes back that far. And she kind of gave up her career while Ian was working on his career here. Then Ian moved to Washington as a producer, first with us and then with ABC. And Susan got back into it.

And that was kind of tough. There were times when, you know, Susan was a major player in the Obama administration and Ian was working in a major news organization. Those two don't necessarily fit together in terms of jobs. But anyway, they worked it out. And Susan right now is a player in the sweepstakes,

in the veepstakes, as they call them. Susan just wrote a book, and the book was really good for her. She told a very personal story about the challenges in her life. But it was good for her because Susan's very tough. She is a tough person. She's really good at her job. She's very strong-willed, not shy of her opinions, takes on a fight.

But the edges were kind of rough, right? The book helped her kind of smooth out those edges. That'll do it when you're on kind of a continuous book tour, which she was. All over the States, parts of Canada, I think elsewhere in the world. Anyway, she's had a good run in terms of putting herself before the public in this last little while. I mean, she has, you know, alleged scandals in her closet.

Benghazi was one. But she's smart, very smart person. And obviously I would love it if she was the vice president, possibly the next president of the United States somewhere down the road. Because she is a friend. I saw her just actually not that long ago. We did an event together in Toronto. But anyway, if I was picking in terms of either one, I think it would be a great candidate.

And either one would be a target from the Republican side. No question about that either. Here's my bet. My bet is, one, they'll both be in some form of a Biden cabinet if Biden wins. Kamala Harris will either be the vice president or she'll be the attorney general. Susan Rice will either be the vice presidential candidate or she'll be the Secretary of State. And you could argue in both cases that each might prefer the role that's not Vice President.

At least I certainly think that might be the case with Susan Rice. She's always wanted to be Secretary of State. But one of them's going to, if the betting is right, one of them is going to be the next Democratic vice presidential candidate. I think it'll be Kamala Harris, but I don't know. All right. When I know more about what Bruce and I are going to do

with a special kind of once-a-week thing, I will certainly let you know. And I should be able to tell you that in the next few days. All right, let's get to this study that I talked about, the Knight Foundation. Here's kind of the headlines on it. I'm just reading from their own website. Americans have high aspirations for the news media to be a trusted, independent watchdog that holds the powerful to account. But in a new Gallup-Knight study,

we found the gap is growing between what Americans expect from the news and what they think they're getting. Perceptions of bias are increasing too, which further erodes the media's ability to deliver on its promise to our democracy. Our democracy being the U.S. democracy. The landmark poll of 20,000 people, 20,000, that's a big poll, found that Americans' hope for an objective media is all but lost. Instead, they see an increasing partisan slant in the news

and a media eager to push an agenda. As a result, the media's ability to hold leaders accountable is diminished in the public's eye. Now, a couple of things before I go further. This is an American study, but I think there are some things in it where you can draw some comparisons, likely comparisons, with Canadians' attitudes as well. Secondly, and I've mentioned this before, I think sometimes people get confused about the divisions within the media itself. There are parts of the media that are there for opinion, to give opinion.

Call it a bias, call it whatever you want, but an opinion is what they're expected to do. Columnists in newspapers and online. Columnists on television who are paid for opinion. All right? That's not necessarily a bad thing. Opinion kind of motivates people to get charged up on issues and give their opinions. So that's one part of the media. The other part is a straight-up kind of news area. That's what I worked in for almost 50 years, reporting the news without bias, without slant,

not telling you what to think, giving you the tools to think for yourself. That's the idea behind the news. The easiest way to think about it is, remember the old national journal split? The national was the news, just the news. Here are the facts about what happened on this day. The journal would take you behind the news

and afford you the opportunity through documentaries, point-of-view documentaries at times, commentaries, hard-up interviews, Barbara. And often, that half of the program was slanted towards opinion. As opposed to the first half.

And it's the same in a newspaper. You pick up the editorial page, you're going to get opinion, right? At times, you know, it'll clearly be biased. All right. With that as a background, let's get into some of this stuff. Here are 10 findings that kind of stand out. Americans say media bias is increasing. 73% see too much bias in news and they see it as a major problem. 73%. Once again, these are all American numbers, right?

But I don't think that they would likely be that different from Canadians' feelings. Second, Americans think the media is pushing an agenda. Eight out of 10 Americans think inaccuracies in reporting aren't an accident. They are intentional. That's what people think. The reporter was misrepresenting the facts. Fifty-four percent of them think that.

Or making them up. Twenty-eight percent think reporters make up the facts. I guess they're not facts. Only 16% said they thought the inaccuracies were innocent mistakes. And when it comes to news sources, they distrust nearly 8 in 10 Americans, 79%, say those outlets are trying to persuade people to adopt a certain opinion. Third, partisanship drives opinions on the media.

Republicans, 71%, have an unfavorable opinion of the media. You know, I think probably somewhere in that same area with conservatives in Canada have unfavorable opinions of the media. 22% of Democrats have an unfavorable opinion. 52% of independents have an unfavorable opinion. So it does cut along partisan lines there. Fourth, a majority of Americans say the media are under political attack, but are divided by party on whether that attack is warranted.

So once again, this is showing the split, right? Young Americans, this is showing the split, right? Young Americans, this is interesting, young Americans tend to have more negative views on the media. One in five American adults under 30 say they have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of the news media versus almost half of those aged 65 and older, 44%. Americans blame the media for political divisions, but they also see the potential for the media to heal these divides. 48% of Americans say the media bears a great deal of blame

for political division in this country, and 36% say they bear a moderate blame. At the same time, 8 in 10 Americans believe the media can bring people together and heal the nation's political divide. So some are really good and bad in the answers to that question. Americans want more newsroom diversity. But they differ on what kind. This breakdown is along party and racial lines. Democrats, 49%, and blacks, 60%,

prioritize racial ethnic diversity in hiring, while Republicans, 51%, and whites, 35%, prioritize ideological diversity in journalists' political views. Number eight out of the ten we're going to give you here. Americans feel overwhelmed by the volume of news. Boy, I think we've all talked about that over these last 21 weeks, especially the volume of news on one particular subject and how depressing at times it can be. The most cited reason for information overload, the mix of news interspersed with non-news on the internet, including social media. How Americans Americans cope varies. Some people, 41%, turn to one or two trusted news sources. Others,

31%, consult a variety. And 17% stop paying attention altogether. I think we've seen some of that over these last 21 weeks. My advice always on this is go to a trusted news source. Go to where you believe you're getting an honest assessment of what's going on around you, delivered to you in a calm and rational, intelligent, informative, at times entertaining way, and stick with that until you lose confidence in that group, if you ever do. Number nine, local news is closely linked to civic engagement. I'll say. Here's one of the reasons why the future of journalism matters to our democracy. People who read and watch local news are more likely to take part in important community issues, and 81% are more likely to participate in local elections.

That's why this whole issue of losing small-town newspapers is so important, and community newspapers is so important because when people don't know what's going on around them in their town or their community, their city, which is what those smaller papers give them, then they're going to disengage. I've had my friend, the mayor of Stratford, tell me this when

he watched the local newspaper reduce in the number of journalists that it has working for it. At least we still have a newspaper, still have a newspaper here in Stratford, but it's not like it used to be. And the number of journalists working at it is nowhere near what it used to be. And what the mayor, Dan Matheson, tells me is that he sees the result of that at council meetings each week. They used to be filled with local community residents and activists who were pumped up about certain stories because they read about them in their local paper. Now they don't, or rarely do.

And as a result, there aren't many people there. And he finds that depressing, because part of democracy is the challenge that people put to their elected officials, making them accountable. Here's the last one, number 10. Despite the findings, Americans think the media is vital for democracy. Well, thank the Lord for that.

The vast majority of Americans, 84%, say that the news media is critical, 49%, or very important. 35% to provide accurate information and hold the powerful accountable. So, you know, I don't know about you, but I find the results of that study, a big study, 20,000 people, I find it pretty interesting and likely to be somewhat duplicated here if a survey of that size was done here. There would be some differences in some areas, but I think overall the odds are that it would be somewhat similar. All right, more food for thought, and I know some of you, I know you guys, I know some of you are going to write about that with some of your thoughts on your own feelings about the media in general

and how they may have changed in these last couple of years and in these last couple of months. So don't be shy. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. All right, that's it for Hump Day. As I said, I want to get a little more information for you on how Bruce and I are going to play this issue

of doing the odd podcast on the American election, how it's unfolding, what it means to us, what it means to them, who's up, who's down, whatever. We'll try and get into it on a regular basis over these next couple of months because it's going to be interesting. It's sure going to be fascinating. All right. So that's the Bridge Daily for today.

I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks for listening. You know it. We'll be back in 24 hours. Thank you.