The online news outlet Axios recently published findings from Edelman polling group that trust in traditional media has sunk to an all-time low. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty host of Armstrong and Getty, on KSTE in Sacramento, think that’s a good thing, adding that podcasting is the way of the future.
“Good,” they said. “Cable news isn’t like what it used to be where you got a steady stream of news 24 hours a day. Now you can get all the day’s news in about 15 minutes. All the rest is just spin one way or the other, mostly to the left.”
Statistics from the study back up that statement. According to the study, 56 percent of Americans agree, “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” In addition, 58 percent of Americans believe “Most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public.”
“Cable News is driving themselves right off of a cliff,” Armstrong and Getty said. “Donald Trump saved them for a cycle or two, but that can only last so long.”
The co-hosts also use the survey to make the argument that the spin on today’s news is divided along party lines. According to Axios, 57 percent of Democrats trust the media while, only 18 percent of Republicans share the same sentiment.
“That’s really not all that surprising,” they said. “More Democrats are going to trust the media because, for the most part, they tell them what they want to hear .That’s just human nature.”
While Armstrong and Getty claim that all cable news networks have spin, they point to one in particular as the worst.
“Watching cable news is like eating pizza. If you get some from a place that’s not that good, you just go somewhere else next time. It may taste bad, but it doesn’t hurt you. Well CNN puts poison on their pizza. It will kill you or at the very least, you might lose a limb listening to guys like Chris Cuomo. They are terrible.”
With the decline of trust in the media, podcasting has exploded in popularity. The medium has only been in existence for about 15 years, but according to Reuters, 36 percent or 90 million people access at least one podcast per month. 15 percent say that they use the podcasting platform to access news, a percentage which has doubled since 2015. Count Armstrong and Getty in that 15 percent.
“News is supposed to be informative,” they said. “You are supposed to learn something when you watch. That does not happen anymore. Haven’t watched CNN or much cable news, except for clips on social media, in the last five years. I listen to podcasts now. Didn’t really mean for it to be that way. It just sort of happened.”