Jeff Bezos recently posed a critical question: Can newspapers endorse political candidates while retaining their credibility as impartial news sources?
His decision to end The Washington Post’s political endorsements, followed by an op-ed on the matter, touches on a legitimate issue. But does this move address the root cause of media bias or simply treat a symptom of a deeper ailment in journalism?
Public trust in the media has plummeted to historic lows, with a recent Gallup poll showing only 31 percent of Americans expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the news. Bezos’s approach acknowledges the problem but falls short of tackling the underlying issues that threaten the press' credibility and, with it, its relevance as an essential element of the broader public discourse.
To truly address the media’s trust crisis, journalism needs an approach that goes beyond stopping endorsements and borrows from a historic model of reform: the American Bar Association.
When the legal industry faced a similar breakdown in public confidence over a century ago, it established standards, credentialing, and a code of ethics. Journalism today needs its own “Bar Association,” an independent organization that is empowered to establish standards, issue credentials, and hold journalists accountable. Only then can the media work to rebuild trust, repair its public image, and reclaim its essential role as the Fourth Estate in our democratic society.
In the late 1800s, the legal profession was in disarray. With no governing standards and little regulation, anyone could claim to be a lawyer, regardless of education, ethics or competence. Public confidence plummeted, as people couldn’t tell competent practitioners from those who were incompetent or corrupt. Recognizing the profession’s need for reform, legal leaders created the ABA in 1878. The Association established a national code of........