The news paradox
This new report from Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is like a splash of cold water to the face.
Around the world, according to this survey of nearly 100,000 news consumers in 48 markets, trust in news has fallen to a 10-year low. On a likely related note, people are increasingly soaking up news through YouTube, TikTok and AI chatbots, rather than seeking out publisher websites and TV channels directly.
The people surveyed generally say they want impartial news coverage, even as they stream the opposite. And they seem to value what traditional newsrooms strive to do. Only 3% say newfangled news “creators” are meeting all their info needs. But there’s also a “growing sense of dissatisfaction” with the news coverage of big, global stories like immigration.
“Within the news ecosystem, an apparent paradox emerges between behavior and attitudes,” Jim Egan writes. “There is continued change in news consumption in favor of social media, video networks and, more recently, AI. At the same time, concerns about trust in news, about misinformation, and about the wider impact of these platforms are all increasing.”
Trust hits another new low |
“Trust in news has dropped globally to 37%, the lowest level since the report started measuring trust in 2015,” The Guardian’s Amanda Meade writes in this recap. “The steepest declines were recorded in the Philippines (-10 points), Ireland (-9), Thailand, Peru and Poland (all -8).” More from Meade: “In the United States only 25% say they trust ‘most news most of the time.’ This amounts to a five-point fall from 2025 and it’s even lower (15%) among right-leaning Americans. Some news brands have experienced large drops in trust: CBS News and Fox News both fell 10 points year-on-year and CNN fell by six.” The report is full of rich detail and important nuance, so I highly recommend spending some time with it. Egan concludes by saying that “trust and interest in news are falling, concerns about misinformation are rising, but at the same time a number of individual news brands are highly and broadly trusted, standing out against an abundance of content, and connecting with their target audiences.” That’s a reminder, he says, that “people still care about what news and journalism – in new shapes and some traditional forms – has to offer, and that the opportunity for news organizations is to ask how they can play a positive role in the lives of their audiences…” |
‘Memorandum of misunderstanding’ |
That’s what Karim Sadjadpour called the current state of play between the US and Iran, now that a “deal” has been signed. Pro-Trump media outlets are desperately trying to sell it as a win for President Trump. “The 47-year war with Iran looks to be over,” Jesse Watters proclaimed on Fox last night, celebrating Trump’s “excursion” as “one of the greatest military campaigns in American history.” He also claimed that “the details of the deal, they’ll be released after Friday. Everybody will be able to read it.” But the current MOU is only a page and a half long, VP JD Vance said under questioning by CNN’s Jake Tapper yesterday, so what’s the hold-up? Kaitlan Collins and other anchors emphasized that question on air last night. “If it was good news, it would have been leaked. We’d all know about it,” conservative commentator David Urban remarked to her.
Meanwhile, over on MS NOW, Rachel Maddow repeatedly said “it does just seem to be Donald Trump surrendering” and called the outcome “basically the definition of losing a war…” |
The aforementioned JD Vance will continue his book tour on “The View.” Last night, Sean Hannity asked why he agreed to do it, and Vance said, “You know the president — his attitude, my attitude, is you go everywhere. You try to take the message everywhere.” It’s intriguing to me because the Trump administration has been pressuring ABC and its parent company, Disney, on several fronts — and one of those fronts is “The View.” This is going to be a fascinating episode of the talk show… |
Today’s new nonfiction releases |
Just like the VP, Sen. Raphael Warnock is out with a new book today. Warnock’s is “The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America.” Plus, just two days after Trump’s 80th birthday, Samuel Moyn is out with “Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth ― and What to Do About It.” Personally, I’m most excited to read “This Is Also a Love Story,” war correspondent Sally Hayden’s “search for goodness in a cruel world.” |
The Knicks are everywhere |
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Rosalind O’Connor/NBC The Nielsen ratings for Game 5 should come out later today, but no metric can possibly capture what Saturday night’s New York Knicks win felt like or how widely it reverberated. Over the weekend, it felt like social media feeds had become Knicks-only content exclusively — clips from the humongous watch parties, the jubilant afterparties in the NYC streets, Jalen Brunson’s emotional postgame speech, etc. And now, this week, it feels like the Knicks have taken over the TV. The starting five appeared on the “Today” show; on “Good Morning America,” for an interview that’s gone viral because of OG Anunoby appearing to be on a different planet; and a “Tonight Show” celebratory takeover that included the entire team plus famous fans Spike Lee and Wu-Tang Clan. Tonight, the TV parade continues, with Karl-Anthony Towns and Anunoby appearing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers…” |
A record-setting World Cup start |
“So far the World Cup is following the pattern of every previous World Cup and Olympics: tons of negative stories about infrastructure, costs, people not buying tickets etc — and then it starts and it’s amazing,” Matt Zeitlin remarked on X. Over the weekend “Fox, Tubi and Fox One combined for 15.99 million viewers for the U.S.-Paraguay match, a record for a U.S. men’s national team game on English-language TV,” THR’s Rick Porter reports. >> The LAT’s Mary McNamara says visitors’ “viral World Cup videos are showing what really makes America great.” |
The Journal’s big scoop on the DOJ’s WarnerMount review |
Here’s some news that will fuel even more scrutiny of the Paramount-WBD deal: “The Justice Department’s senior leadership closed an investigation of Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery before career staffers who were concerned about the acquisition had an opportunity to object,” the WSJ’s Dave Michaels, Dana Mattioli, Sadie Gurman and Jessica Toonkel scooped yesterday. This follow-up to last Friday’s DOJ announcement OK‘ing the deal says the career staffers “were leaning toward recommending a lawsuit challenging it on the grounds that the combination of the two movie studios would be anticompetitive and violate antitrust law.” But they “hadn’t yet made a final recommendation,” and HQ went ahead and gave the green light, according to the WSJ. DOJ leadership put out a long statement justifying the approval of the deal, and some DOJ antitrust staffers believe the statement “was designed to make it harder for state attorneys general to challenge the deal in court,” the WSJ reporters added. Well, if so, this leak to the Journal is the counterweight. California AG Rob Bonta reiterated Friday night that “the merger of Warner Bros and Paramount is not a done deal and remains under investigation by my office.” Insiders continue to expect that state AGs will try to block the deal in the coming weeks. Deadline’s Dominic Patten has a close look at the politics at play here… |
The merger’s UFC White House ‘capstone’ |
The timing of the DOJ’s green light was nothing if not remarkable: It meant that Sunday’s UFC fight on the White House lawn, streamed exclusively on Paramount+, doubled “as a capstone for Paramount’s successful effort” to secure the Trump admin’s blessing for the mega-merger. That’s how the NYT’s Michael Grynbaum described it in his story noting Paramount CEO David Ellison’s attendance at the UFC event on Sunday night. There was quite a bit of criticism about the fact that Paramount kept the bloody spectacle — billed as a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary — behind the Paramount+ pay wall, rather than airing it on CBS. >> Jon Stewart delivered a “scorching monologue” about the fight night on “The Daily Show” last night – then pointed out that Paramount+ is his corporate sibling and pretended to pivot accordingly… >> The Freedom of the Press Foundation says Paramount+ rejected an ad it submitted that criticized the Paramount-WBD deal… |
>> “Top White House officials believe New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan obtained audio recordings of Situation Room meetings for their forthcoming book, ‘Regime Change,’” Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen reported over the weekend. “Regime Change” is not out for another week, but it’s already ahead of Vance’s book on Amazon’s new release best sellers list. (Axios) >> Beloved WABC anchor Bill Ritter “announced on Friday that it was his last broadcast after he was diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s disease.” But he will continue reporting for the station – about “the rising tide of Alzheimer’s.” (NYT) >> “Twenty student newspapers in Montgomery County, Maryland, are fighting a district memo that they’re concerned could lead to censorship of what they publish,” Liam Scott wrote. (WaPo) >> “Over 40 sources, including current and former Unwell employees,” spoke with Clara Molot about Alex Cooper’s podcast network and the role of Cooper’s husband Matt Kaplan. (Vanity Fair) >> NBCUniversal news boss Cesar Conde sat down with Jordyn Holman for a “Corner Office” feature on “How to Run a News Company in the Age of Polarization and A.I. Slop.” (NYT) >> MrBeast “hit 500 million subscribers on YouTube Friday, becoming the first creator ever to reach that milestone.” (TheWrap) |
Yesterday’s huge media M&A deal: “Fox is acquiring Roku, the popular streaming TV platform, in a massive $22 billion deal.” CNN’s Jordan Valinsky has the details here. On a call with investors, Lachlan Murdoch said the combined might of Tubi and Roku “effectively triples the reach of the combined service.” Per THR’s Caitlin Huston, he said “our expectation is fully that you keep the services separate. They serve consumers and our viewers in different ways.” Fox shares plummeted on news of the deal, likely due to “concerns about stock dilution,” Reuters noted. As for the strategy behind it all, Business Insider’s Peter Kafka has it all covered… |
More of today’s tech talk |
>> British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday that “he would ban social media sites for under-16s and impose restrictions on gaming and live-streaming platforms, in a fightback against big tech that goes further than any other country.”(Reuters) >> Meanwhile, Florida’s attorney general sued TikTok yesterday “over claims it is violating the state’s law barring social media platforms from allowing children under age 14 to create accounts.” (Reuters) >> A “new AI-focused content coalition” called the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media counts Disney, the NYT, Condé Nast, and the FT among its members. (Variety) >> Meta is “rolling out new AI features on Facebook that aim to change how users find information, create content, and interact with the platform.” (TechCrunch) >> Electronic Arts is announcing “a new way for brands to advertise ‘directly into gameplay.’” (CNBC) |