Axios, Politico Co-Founder Tells News Outlets to ‘Be More Humble’ After Poll Shows Americans Have Major Trust Issues with Media
Axios co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei urged media outlets to “be more humble” and reporters to jump off of Twitter, now X, following a poll suggesting Americans have major trust issues with news organizations going into the presidential election.
VandeHei, also a co-founder of Politico, joined Kasie Hunt on CNN This Morning on Thursday to discuss his new book Just the Good Stuff. Hunt began the segment by describing the delicate balance media outlets have to walk covering Donald Trump’s legal troubles, including the Manhattan hush money trial.
Hunt also played footage of The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart roasting the media’s extensive coverage of Trump’s trial and referenced an Associated Press poll showing a majority are concerned about the media spewing “misinformation” going into November’s presidential election.
VandeHei told Hunt, who was previously hired by VandeHei for Politico, there are “forces” trying to actively “diminish” the role of the media, but news organizations bear some responsibility for a general lack of public trust too.
“I think us in the media, we have to be a little more humble and we have to realize our job is to be clinical in delivering the information, try to get to the closest approximation of the truth, if we screw it up, be humble enough to admit it,” he said.
The media head also recommended journalists “maybe get off Twitter” and not be “hyperventilating” about things they disagree with, touting at one point the fact that Axios has no opinion page and urges reporters to keep their opinions private.
“Maybe get off Twitter and maybe stop popping off in ways that make people distrust the work that you do,” VandeHei said.
The Axios CEO noted the sheer amount of media available today makes the environment more difficult, but said there needs to be a “common truth” like differentiating between free speech and criminal behavior at pro-Palestinian protests across the country, many of which led to police action.
“If we suddenly have a country that trusts nothing, and there’s no sources of common truth, it’s going to be really hard to govern,” VandeHei said.
Watch above via CNN.
