Jay Rosen asks, “What explains falling confidence in the press?” In the period before Woodward and Berstein, 70 percent of Americans had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the news media. Today it’s 44 percent. Why?
“What makes it a puzzle is that during that same period, several other things were happening,” writes Rosen. “Journalists were becoming better educated. They were more likely to go to journalism school, my institution. During this period, the cultural cachet of being a journalist was on the rise. Newsrooms were getting bigger, too: more boots on the ground to cover the news. Journalism was becoming less of a trade and more of a profession.”
