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at record low trust in the mass media with 30 1% expressing a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in the media to report the news fully, fairly and accurately. that is similar to last year 32%. american trust and the media such as newspapers, television and radio first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year. for the third consecutive year more u.s. adults have no trust at all in the media, 36%, and another 33% of americans say not very much confidence. and in addition to that mainly looking at national news polling doing some data as well and something that they found is that a majority of both parties, democrats and republicans say that local media in the area is doing their job well, while

republicans and gop-leaning independents are slightly less positive than democrats and democratic leaders of their opinion of local media. views of local news don't have the same start political the five that exist within american opinion about national media. it was this week during an event hosted by a summit discussing public trust in the news. it was jim brady, the journalism vice president talking about why the trust in local news is higher than national news. >> why do you think the local news trust is significantly higher, double or even triple some of the numbers on the national level? >> i think because you are reporting about things people know about and care about. one of the things we didn't do very well for a long time from the newspaper world, i think

even when the business of local journalism is really good, the newspaper business specifically, i don't think that resonates deeply with our audiences. i think the margins are so good that we could cover whatever we wanted and what the audience wanted is not necessarily something top of mind. i think that's changed a lot in the digital era with the business model has gone from advertising to a much more subscription model. and good luck building a viable membership or subscription number at the audience doesn't get asked what it is they want directly, a way to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction. i think there's much more of a sense that local news organizations, especially the ones in the last 15, 20 years star but the idea that we need to give consumers what they want. which i don't think we did very well for a long time. there's an interesting newspaper publisher last year that made a

point that said you know when you get 100 high school football scores right every day in the paper, people tend to believe the stuff you put in there about government and transportation and other things immediately. i thought that was an interesting way of looking at it. if people can verify you are getting things right because they are about the people being covered. host: for this first hour we are asking your view of the news media. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. we will start with kurt in anaheim, california, republican. kurt, are you there? caller: morning. host: hi kurt. caller: how are you? host: doing well, you are on the air, go ahead. caller: so what would you like

to talk about? host: we will go on to marvin. marvin is in philadelphia, line for democrats. caller: i think local news is better. the national news started becoming -- i can't pronounce it. that means it is about money. they make money off of news. i think ever since obama, obama being the first black president, it just seemed like every day the national news, they try to make money off of news. i don't trust what they say. i trust c-span because people call about their point of view and i can come up with my point of view. fox news is for republicans and trump supporters, and nbc this

more for democrats and people against trump. i think it is all about the money. it has all become market-ized and i don't the trust national news. i'm an older gentleman and i don't trust the national news. you can get the information that is necessary and come up with a better conclusion. that's why i think that the election went the way that it did, because people don't know the truth. hello? host: yes, go ahead. caller: yeah, that's what i came up with. if they would have known the truth or had a better understanding of what trump was pretending to do with the government and everything like that, people might have voted differently. people are not educated in the news is supposed to get them educated.

and i wish the national news would start doing their job. start telling them to make money off of the news. host: should eat -- philipe, independents. caller: it's actually phillipe. host: sorry about that. caller: it happens a million times, no big deal. here's the situation. our journalism is privately held by advertisers, always has been and always will be. if anyone wants a lesson on that, go back to citizen kane. excellent examination journalism. journalism has its standards but they are beholden. where we are at today, we are so

divided it is unlike any other time before. look and see who advertises on fox. snake oil and stuff like that, it is nonsense. then you have cnn which has always been the open for left-wing type of stuff, and they have to filter what is going on and that is unfortunate. they are very reliable sources of information that do not have a spin to it. we lived in a society that is not able to accept the answer "i don't know." they look at saying that as a position of weakness. i think it is a position of honesty to say i don't know something, let me get back to you. i don't want your truth, i want facts and facts alone. it is ridiculous.

i will say this again, i've never been so embarrassed in my life to be where we are at. the way the president of ukraine was treated in our home is just unacceptable. and we should have a countdown to when this is over. when these people are gone. that is what i hope for. thank you for your time, have a lovely day. host: mary, fort washington, maryland, line for democrats. caller: good morning, how are you doing, washington journal folks? the news media has never told the truth for the last 30 years. they will not tell the truth to the people about foreign policy this country. if they did, the answer so everybody would be totally different. cnn, they spin headlines.

msnbc, oh my god, terrible. spin headlines. and they just get their panels on there and all you get is their opinion. all we want is the truth which comes from facts. they are not telling the truth about the proxy war. if they did, we wouldn't be so upset about how -- is stealing. why would anybody support anymore wars? we want young generations to continue to live. there's nobody else in ukraine to fight. they are dragging people out of their homes. they are using pregnant women. the war was lost three years ago but the media didn't tell us that. so i don't have any faith in this media ever, especially as a black person. i get my media news 89.3 fm jazz and justice. i used to listen to sputnik coast before it was terminated because of the people who on the network. all of the networks are owned by

oligarchs, and every news channel is owned by the corporations. so do you expect us to get the truth from these corporations who stepped forward to take over this country right now? i don't know about this country. i don't even want to be here, especially with the person that is supposed to be the president. this is a joke. host: philadelphia, line for republicans. go ahead. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. context for what we are discussing today with the news media, i would say my general emotions are negative. i think that we watched in real-time a great deal of our country fall victim to

disinformation, feedback loops, what happened in the oval office the other day. this so-called left-leaning legacy media has largely failed to make mention of the fact that president trump was successfully impeached, albeit not removed from office for his behavior with president zelenskyy in the past. and almost certainly what happened was prearranged. it's almost impossible to feel like it was not. a great deal of the despair that we are experiencing right now and the paranoia is by design. for example, a reporter from the russian state media that was present during the meeting and was later escorted out, the amount of screening that members of the press are subject to makes that impossible. and i would argue that people are in a very vulnerable place right now. the knee-jerk reaction is that

they need to feel trust for something. as a republican, many of my colleagues, countrymen, whatever you would say here have fallen victim starting with fox news and persisting to increasingly splintered and manic channels that mostly peddle disinformation talking points. that includes the vice president himself who if you saw the escalation of that argument, it's because he was unable to give a good answer to the president of ukraine when he was asked a very direct question which he should have been able to answer. and i think that it is fair for people to be frustrated and confused by what is going on. you're expected to keep up constantly with their frantic internal logic that doesn't -- only makes sense to people who have taken the red pill, so to speak. i think that there is an opportunity here as we move forward for people to remember

that we do not live in xi' chinas or castro's cuba. we still live in the united states. our elected officials and the people up there are still not going to be killed or jailed for standing up and speaking truth to power. they still have the opportunity to do the right thing, and i pray that they do so. i think there is an opportunity for people to get together and actually force the issue of leaning things back towards a fact-based reality. we live in a very dire situation where the conditions are such that rupert murdoc' wall street journal is at odds with the president of the united states of america, that they are less conservative than the leader of the free world. currently live in a totally insulated bubble where he is largely fed disinformation by people who are compromised i foreign power.

host: that was ed in philadelphia. a partisan breakdown of the recent polling looking at confidence in the mass media, the blue line that ucf atop, that is democrats. it is a 54%. the gray dotted line is independents, that is 27%. the bottom number, the red, 12%. just 12% of republicans and a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. it was during last week's event looking at restoring trust in news that npr's ceo was asked about accusations of the outlet being too liberal. here is her response. >> one corporate teak, one i think you're probably pretty familiar with is that npr is too liberal. kind of a cliche. what would you point to right

now in your programming that disproves that? >> our newscast, our morning show. the 10 million people who listen every single week, the fact that we are in every part of the country and have millions of listeners in every state, red, blue or otherwise. in terms of the programming, our broadcast programming i would say is very much downline and focuses on bringing folks on who are making the news every single day and asking them the questions that matter. we don't do opinion programming unlike other parts of folks that we had on so far today, and i think that is a pretty big difference. >> so why do you think that view? i listen to morning edition, all things considered. i know plenty of the people who work on them. these are often quite rigorously

, very, very objective in the traditional journalistic sense. why do you think the people that have that viewpoint? >> i was a couple different things. public radio is public radio. not everything you hear on public radio is npr. you may hear things are appropriate to the local community. you are going to hear something very different than you are going to here in san francisco which has a totally different audience that is trying to serve. public radio has a different tone and that is part of what makes it really special. the local communities determine what they program, they choose was the program. not even all public radio programs npr. that is often summing that we here and something we really have to advocate for what it is that we do and explain what we do. i think we have to show what we do. it is a really important piece of how we think about trust and part of that is also articulating you actually listen to our coverage, tell me what it is you are hearing that you think is a problem. host: taking your call for

getting your comment on what you think about the news media. this tweet, or sorry, this text from harry in pennsylvania, "i'm a registered professional engineer. if i needed thorough, timely accurate information or data i would never use the american midi industry or its cohorts. awful doesn't describe it. it's 2025 and it is still tabloid usa." let's hear from rob in new y orik, independents. caller: here is why i don't trust the media. here's some stories that you've not heard in the media. since elon musk got into this thing and he got into usaid, it turns out usaid is paying for 6200 journalists, 770 news outlets. jamie raskin's company took $160 million of usaid money just in 2023 alone. sheldon whitehouse's wife got

$12 million from usaid money because she has some kind of ocean research company that is just a fraud. they gave $2 billion from climate money to that woman in georgia who ran for governor, stacey abrams. $2 billion. and here's another crazy thing you are not going to hear on the news. our government said fema had no money for those people in hawaii when they were burned out. they didn't have any money for the people in ohio. they didn't have any money for hurricane victims in florida or north carolina but in the time that those things were going on they handed out one $1 billion to illegal aliens, including the roosevelt hotel which is owned by the pakistani government. i have no faith in the media. alec soros and his father just bought hundreds of radio stations, and c-span, you guys are about ready to put a traitor on the air at 9:00, alexander vindman.

he leaked trump's phone call to zelenskyy when trump was trying to find out why all those millions flowed in to the biden family pockets. host: you said you don't trust the news media, but you work talking about people who are getting paid. where did you get that information from? caller: i do my own research and i'm not going to tell you where because i don't want those sites to be knocked off-line as soon as i get off the phone and our government has the opportunity to do that, and they've done it before. our government is not working for us. there working against us. and the other thing the media has been lying about lately is how russia invaded ukraine. well, russia did not invade ukraine for eight years. the u.n. state department was recorded in a phone call where she said we want the guy, f the e.u.

and by the way, zelenskyy only received 72 billion dollars. so there's 105 billion dollars of equipment running around here, where is it? and why won't the media talk about that? host: you were talking about stacey abrams. i wanted to share something with political fact. they looked into this and they are saying that there is no evidence that abrams was a senior counsel one of the five member organizations of the clean energy coalition that received $2 billion in funding from bidens epa. abrams was not paid by communities and did not receive any federal funds, its ceo said. the epa said it is awarded a grant for a competitor view process. there is no funding that evidence the fun was fraudulent or that abrams personally benefited from it. power forward communities recently announced the first face of projects granted by the grant. they rate that's three false. caller: political fact?

they are garbage. politifact, you guys have got to quit using these for your source, good god. they are lying to you every day and you keep -- forget it, i'm done. have a good day. host: that was robbed in new york. gary in new york, line for democrats. caller: hello? how you doing? host: doing well. caller: i just thought i'd call. definitely a democrat. my honest opinion, all those felonies trump has had, he should definitely be put in jail. republicans are all afraid of him. they should impeach him, i think. i don't think you should even be a garbage person. honestly, even my son voted for trump and i couldn't believe he did. honestly he should have been put in jail.

the president of ukraine when they were talking on the news, that was ridiculous. what they did to him and what it made the united states look like compared to other countries, and he is supposedly the president. honestly should be president. host: this headline from the outlet "the conversation." white house spat ignites fears for press freedom in second trump era. a federal judge will shortly decide if the u.s. president is allowed to dictate the terms of service of the associated press, the u.s. wire agency that proudly proclaims it is read by 4 billion people every day. it was last week during the event about trusted media that bret baier of fox news was asked

about the white house blocking access to the associated press. >> what do you make of the big controversy of the white house decision to block the ap access specifically, because they won't say gulf of america and also to sort of make the plate to take control of the pool? what do you make of that? >> you support the white house correspondents association, we always have. not just the organizing of the pool, big scholarships, all kinds of things. this is a reordering. we will see how it shakes out for the tv side. the five tv networks are going to still do the same job. i worry about setting precedent that changes things down the road and maybe they don't realize the implications. i think that they are talking

about more transparency. you can't argue that this white house isn't answering questions and opening up. i think he sent 1100 questions in the first month. >> i saw you report that, a power struggle. do you think the media ought to have control openly over who gets sent to follow him around? >> we stood by the ap, we stood by not blocking somebody for editorial decisions. i've stood up for cnn. people have stood up for fox. >> i guess the concern is to make it explicit. >> it would have been different times. it would set precedent. i think it is something that you have to be concerned about. >> i've always admired fox's stance.

there have been a bunch of these controversies and fox has some degree in ways the audience might not love fought for these kind of micro-prerogatives any white house that you have consequences. >> telling the story about that is not something people care about in middle america. >> i watch the show, this is not a thing you talk about. >> it's very processed, it is very washington. >> it's very boring. are you worried that your audience with the upset? >> it was a bigger story. if somebody cared about how the white house press pool is going to operate. russ, it is very processed. it is big here in washington and i did it on social media. but it is very processy for anybody watching. host: on the same topic, this is the headline in the opinion section of the new york times. trump loves free speech only when it is his.

the opinion by the editorial board says over the past month, mr. trump and his allies have embarked on an expansive crackdown on free expression and disfavored speakers they should be decried not just as hypocritical, but also as un-american and unconstitutional. in the distorted view of the trump administration, protecting free speech requires controlling free speech. banning words, phrases and ideas that challenge or complicate government-favorite speech, officials in washington have spent the past month stripping federal websites of any hint of unfavorable words and thoughts, disciplining news organizations that refuse to parent the president's language and threatening to punish those who have voiced criticism of the investigations or prosecutions. the orwellian nature of this approach is deliberate and dangerous. this posture is not an app protecting free speech, it is about prioritizing far-right ideology and at times

celebrating lies and hate speech under the guise of preventing the criminalization of language while trying to silence independent thought, inconvenient truths, and voices of distance. it goes on to say the current administration may argue that the steps are simply setbacks for an american payback for an american political left that can be rightly criticized for policing speech in recent years, from trying to shut or shout down conservative speakers, trying to enforce it is adhering to its own list of acceptable words and phrases like pregnant people, the un-housed, incarcerated individuals and latinx. the trump administrations early and furious reaction to criticisms of pungent beach isn't just guilty of the same sends, expands on them, worryingly with the powers of the state. if the movement were really confident about the american public stood firmly behind the new intolerance, then why not

welcome serious reporting or even the jeers of critics and let the best ideas win? we will talk with sue in michigan, line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning. so you have two things going on here. you have an issue with propaganda. in 2012, obama signed the national defense authorization act, which allowed propaganda to be spoken by all of our news media. they all do it. they can live to the american people. this w

>> you want to do the history here. these people are all from vested interest right now and it is an anti-trump issue because we cannot get the facts. you should be telling the truth to the people. c-span is totally corporateized. you are not honest. thank you.

>> good morning, joseph. >> good morning, c-span. i'm a news junkie. i want to pivot to the speech president donald trump and vice president jd vance had about what is going on. you have to let people know what is happening. how it could lead to world war iii. the news media has changed. i joked with my friend. i watch cnn and fox news to get the truth because i know the opposite of what they are saying is the truth. i watch fox news because they are more honest.

even immigrants here. they want that cheap labor. they say people won't work for that kind of job no more. donald trump is going to change america forever, change america for the better. we are not getting the truth. i think president trump is a great man.

i was a sophomore in high school in 1981. >> good morning, c-span, thank you do. anyway, let's get back to the fairness doctrine during the reagan administration which is basically advertising now for pharmaceutical companies. rush limbaugh and fox news which should be faux news paid $7 billion for their lies.

when you have a president who says we have given $360 billion to ukraine when it is only $170 billion at the most. just to continually spout the lies. you can't trust your president, but they do. it is amazing. we are going from eisenhower to reagan, all of these guys have to be spinning in their graves at what a complete embarrassment. it is an embarrassment the way this man comports himself and puts himself in the world every day and i can't believe people supported this man and put him in office. he is a disgrace on our country

and hopefully people rise up and we do get some leadership. klobuchar should have been the vice presidential pick by biden in the first place and biden should have stepped down in 2023. this is ridiculous. >> we will go on to chat in wisconsin. the line for republicans. >> good morning. there was a guy earlier on the republican line giving a bunch of stories, that was awesome because he is right. you guys don't even talk about that stuff. i will put on cnn, i will put on msnbc and any time when i get home from work and trump is answering questions from the media in the oval office, msnbc is the only one not airing it. how is that giving their viewers a true insight on what is being

talked about? these people on the left and all they want to do is bash trump and you guys are included in this. a caller tried to tell you earlier this week that you guys are spreading a left-wing narrative and you are. i don't hear you ever, rarely does washington journal actually use newsmax or fox as a reference. every paper in front of you is a left-leaning paper and nobody trusts those people anymore. until you guys kind of get back to where you should be and be fair and balanced we will not get the answers that we want out of you. >> that was chat in wisconsin. john in ohio. >> i agree, the media is corrupt and controlled by the six

biggest corporations syndicated and controlling the media in this country and they are right wing. there are the 1500 am radio stations that are right wing. they constantly call the democrats liberal, leftist, marxist, socialist or communist, a return back to the mccarthy period. all we get is the right wing, pro-republican media and the right wing pro-democrat. people have been completely deluded into thinking choosing one or the other. fox or cnn, cnn or msnbc or fox.

i think you've got to go beyond that. it is exactly the elements that are censored totally by the media that have accredited people. it all feels they are censored. global research. the gray zone. these are completely censored and blacklisted and lied about. how the united states government spent $5 billion overthrowing the democratically elected

pro-russian government. biden and obama. they are still having that same kind of lies. to demonize any country that disobeys the proven crooks and liars. i've put together a search phrase of my own, cia controls media to demonize countries for u.s. attacks against them. >> that was john talking about media regulation that was the topic during last week's summit. discussed by the sbc chair. here is that clip. >> for people that care about free expression, just the

typical long-standing american views is the government, is you. you wrote in 2021 a newsrooms decision had a friend that should be beyond the reach of government. is your view changed another you are in power? >> what i have said is the greatest threat we have seen over the last several years has come from large social media companies that have amassed incredible amounts of power. they have more power over more speech than any institution in history. what we saw them doing with that power was discriminating against viewpoints and the government was involved. the biden administration was pressuring social media companies to shutdown political speech. mark zuckerberg put out a letter saying we felt pressured to do that. my position is we want more speech, not less. >> but you are not a cable news

commentator, you are a government official. it seems you no longer think the government is a threat to speech now that you are the government. >> the government should follow the law. the president issued executive order to call social media companies to take posts. >> you have social media companies on the one hand, you have licensed broadcasters on the other hand. people don't want to have public interest obligations. if people want to change that, you have to go to congress. as a license to be a broadcaster -- i will give you the address of the fcc end if you are broadcaster and you don't want to serve the public interest you can go podcast and over the top but as long as congress says that you have unique access to valuable spectrum. >> thank god i live on the

internet. >> just about 15 minutes left in this first portion of washington journal asking your views of the news media. let's hear from tom in tucson, arizona. good morning. >> hello? >> hi, tom. >> how are you doing? >> very well, go ahead, tom. >> i was listening to some of these people about fox news, if they were such a great organization why were they find $800 million for the lies that they spread about the voting machines in the 2020 election? the problem with the news media is they are not asking the hard questions of the republicans in power in the house and the senate. these people think they can get by.

is there anybody in the republican party that has the guts to stand up to donald trump? if they don't, they need to get a new job because they don't deserve to be in the house and the senate. where is their courage? they are like a bunch of sheep and they make me sick. he couldn't be doing the stuff he did if he didn't have the backing of the house and senate. and they got rid of liz cheney who did stand up to him. and this is a sad state of affairs. >> tom in arizona. brian in salt lake city. morning, brian. >> hey, good morning. let me start this off. the truth has no agenda, the truth is the truth.

cnn, msnbc, that is all they do is lie. everybody says trump is a liar. that is all bull crap. usaid, samantha powers. all americans are mostly like homer simpson. that is what they think of us. here they are spewing all these lies. samantha powers needs to be arrested. usaid has all kinds of waste money. abrams. you know, the truth has no agenda, speak the truth. it will save our country. we are going down. barack obama was brought up in socialism. his whole family was that.

you have to get everybody on welfare, everybody getting money. that is what o-biden has done. i call him o'biden, because obama was running the country. >> thank you for taking my call. i'm an independent and let me explain how i got there. i can't believe the left and you can't believe the right particularly on television and social media. it is very difficult to change people's views. watch a right wing television or

right wing television and then turn around and watch the left and somewhere there is the truth. i became an independent because you see different views and both of them are extreme to the left were extreme to the right. the only one i can find closest to the middle is newsnation. the older people watch television. we have a tale of two cities. we have the younger people who pick up their news on social media, which is even worse. it is very difficult to filter it. i take umbrage with your previous caller from utah talking about welfare. my mother was widowed with five children at the age of 34. we were on the welfare system. we all had clean clothes and

went to colleges. the republicans are lining their pockets with the nra's money. i just ask everybody to watch both stations, don't just keep your views. the only way america is going to get better is if the independents take control of this. >> let's go to mary in philadelphia, pennsylvania. good morning. >> good morning, c-span. people need to realize we cannot rely solely on the media. you know, i'm a retired government worker. all of this information is supposed to be listed in every city and state, basically what they have been doing with our tax dollars.

we should not be $37 trillion in debt. we have been funding the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terror for almost 60 years now. we have no idea that we have been funding these organizations, these nonprofits, and it is very difficult to find out what they have been doing with our money. the city is required to post a semiannual report exactly what happened to our tax dollars. >> we go on to tom in portland, indiana. line for republicans. good morning, tom. >> good morning. most republicans call in and

they want to badmouth you but i wanted to congratulate you because you went from 20% supportive of the democratic agenda to now you are up to like 50%. wow. you are horrible and you don't even see it yourself. so there you go, that's all i got to say. >> that was tom in indiana. let's go to juliet in rockport, massachusetts, line for independents. good morning. >> good morning, thank you for taking my call. i was fortunate enough to watch the semafor conference last evening and i was fascinated. there was such a strong set of panelists, of media titans if you well, not all, but some. megyn kelly was aghast and she

is a former fox news host as you know. her show had more viewers at any given time then any of the top brass knew on cable tv. when she worked for fox news, she never would have been able to join trump at the place in what was that in new york city, madison square garden? she was a guest speaker. she never would have been able to do that on fox. in addition, the ceo of global cnn, you think cnn is just out of new york and south carolina, georgia. ok. he was saying it is all about the branding.

cnn has been hemorrhaging viewership. look at what happens to jim acosta. he was told to go to midnight and he said, forget you. he has his own podcast and i'm not really sure, i think he is with one of the titans on the internet. he has more viewers than he did on cnn. the cnn brand has been decimated because of the lies they spew during the 2016 election. 2020. look at jake tapper's book. he just came out with a book saying he knew all along joe biden was mentally unfit to run for president. then there was another person, the ceo of cnn, of npr.

i read sputnik international. sputnik international is a russian based media company, but they have broad brand licensing out of washington, d.c., so how do you like that? mostly they report on military, the wars, etc. one more quick thing about npr, they are being investigated by the fcc, they are funded by the taxpayer, but their news reporting sounds more like advertising, which is kind of interesting. i listen to npr a lot, i listens to all things considered, there is another one, a financial one in the evening.