It’s no longer a tacit acknowledgment that the media’s influence is dying. Axios’ co-founder begrudgingly admits that the power of this institution is degrading due to a wholesale lack of trust from the public. The liberal media got ahead of its skis trying to destroy Donald Trump. In the process, the man has been elected president of the United States twice. At the same time, the legacy press has taken the blows for being serially incorrect and laughably inaccurate in their reporting to cover for Democrats. The media was hoisted by their own petard, and now millions are flocking to alternative sources for information.
Axios founder @JimVandeHei says trust in American media collapsed in three phases.
— Honestly with Bari Weiss (@thehonestlypod) April 8, 2025
1. Twitter exposed the political bias of “objective” journalists.
2. Coverage of Covid, “defund the police,” and word policing didn’t sit right with Americans.
3. The lack of coverage around Joe… pic.twitter.com/aTpxAZQrYr
It has been a steady climb down since the Obama years. The lack of trust has been earned.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 9, 2025
Americans have witnessed mainstream media institutions abandon standards repeatedly to advance preferred narratives. And the entire time the consistent response would be defensive… https://t.co/4W3GGdqjsE
No one cares what these prominent newspapers say. They’re all ignored, mocked, or spit on by the voters, and they’ve earned it. Speaking with The Free Press, Jim VandeHei cited three examples that led to the collapse of trust in the media:
- Twitter exposed supposedly objective journalists
- The coverage of the COVID pandemic, the ‘defund the police’ madness, and the overall distaste for the media being the word police.
- The lack of coverage of Joe Biden’s precipitous mental decline.
He added that he thinks it’s a “couple of bad apples who make it look bad for everyone.” It’s not just a couple of bad apples, Jim; they’re all bad.
Some noted the lack of trust could be traced to the Obama era, as the pervasive abandonment of standards of supposedly impartial sources began to dissipate. The Kavanaugh character assassination attempt was also another moment where the media and its credibility went down the toilet. And what about the Russian collusion hoax?
The examples Jim cited are undoubtedly warranted, but I feel this list of incidents that led to the demise of trust in the media could be a multi-volume encyclopedia.
