Edelman Finds Trust Collapsing, Forgets 'Why'
The PR giant Edelman's latest report, dutifully echoed by Axios, laments that people no longer 'accept the same sources, authorities or even the validity of the act of disagreement itself.' Over five years, trust in national leaders and major news plummeted. One might wonder if this has anything to do with, say, the wholesale dismissal of expert warnings about Iraq, the cheerleading for perpetual
war, or perhaps the sustained propaganda campaigns around conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. When outlets like the New York Times retract entire segments of their 'journalism' months after the damage is done, or CNN platforming figures who openly advocate for ethnic cleansing, it's less a 'collapsing reality' and more an exposure of their own, carefully constructed fiction. Instead, Axios
suggests people are 'retreating into insularity,' turning to friends and family. Perhaps those friends and family haven't taken hundreds of millions in ad revenue from defense contractors, or, like U.S. politicians who bankroll AIPAC , haven't voted overwhelmingly for aid packages that fuel the very conflicts the media then frames as intractable. The 'shared reality' they mourn isn't collapsing;
it's being redefined by those who refuse to be lied to anymore. Apparently, truth is a silo now.