Wiretapped: Politics Aside, This is Why People Don’t Trust The Media

The revelation that President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was in fact wiretapped in Trump Tower, is just the latest example of why news consumers have such little trust in partisan national media.

Let me qualify this article with an important point: outlets like FoxNews and Breitbart are culpable of their efforts to distort, omit, and present facts in a way that supports their own partisan narrative.

But today’s wiretapping revelation is a perfect example of why so many people agree with the #FakeNews label the commander-in-chief has ascribed to CNN.

Today’s revelation isn’t really about CNN getting a story wrong. Everyone is wrong sometimes, even well-intentioned and impartial news organizations. But CNN didn’t just say that Trump was wrong about his assertion several months ago that his campaign was wiretapped. CNN and some of its most prominent “reporters” belittled the president, called the president an “idiot” for even making the suggestion and asserted that, on this basis, he is a liar.

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These are strong accusations. Before making them, you would think that a credible news organization would be more careful not to end up with egg on their face.

Nevertheless, America’s “Most Trusted Name in News” was seriously wrong. Period.

With demonstrably bad reporting on such a serious issue (an incumbent administration using the power of our public intelligence agencies to spy on the campaign of a presidential candidate), is it any wonder America is losing trust?

A look at CNN’s headlines since March on the wiretapping reporting, shows just how quick the network has been to challenge Trump’s credibility. Note the lack of qualifiers in the headlines below:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has found humor in the bad reporting. Assange tweeted on the wiretapping issue:

A Harvard-Harris poll conducted last May, showed nearly two-thirds of Americans say the mainstream press is full of fake news, a sentiment that is held by a majority of voters across the ideological spectrum.