Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
In spending my entire adulthood in Denver media — when people ask me where did I grow up, I always respond with I think it’s gonna be Denver. I have witnessed the slide of sources of information for Front Range citizens from a time period of a powerful KOA Radio, two vibrant newspapers in the city, to seemingly all the TV stations getting more than their fair share of viewers.
Interesting enough, more than 8 in 10 of us now get all of our information from a digital device. When is the last time you turned on your television to watch the news?
More than 8 in 10 of us say they get their news from a phone, a computer, their tablets, or something they’re constantly checking, social media.
Now remember, like the Front Range, the country is rapidly losing trust in traditional media providing straight news about politics. Notice the coverage of homelessness in Denver. Those who have lost faith now reaches more than 50 percent in newspaper and daily TV news — in less than a year trust in news media has fallen from 46 percent to 36 percent. A Gallup statistic.
And people have turned to forms like blogs, to influencers, to electric tribal chieftains. It’s important that you know or remember that these are not news organizations. No one is editing, no one is fact checking, as I’ve learned the hard way, no one is certainly writing retractions or corrections.
Separating what is straight news in the Front Range from influencers seems to be one of the first steps. And then also, heads up Kyle Clark, separating reporters and news anchors from commentary. Have you noticed that one on air person will wear all of those hats? And after that these turn out to be just people with opinions. And I say take all of them, including my work, with a grain of salt.
Thomas Jefferson schools us that we are responsible for our own knowledge and well-being about the state of politics or the state of the union. One of the breakdowns that I read to get ready to write this is where people get their news.
This will floor some of us.
78% of us get our news from YouTube.
55%, hold onto your hats, say Facebook.
51% claim they go to Instagram also.
Pinterest 37% visit for news.
Reddit, x (twitter), and an outfit called Snapchat, are other sources.
What does that do to what’s left of Denver’s daily newspaper the Post, or radio stations, or television stations?
Remember, because I do, when I could name media personalities that appeared in Pittsburg as a kid growing up or in Denver as a young man.
We were focused on print and broadcast news. I doubt if my grandson ever actually turns TV on.
Most Americans 65 and older say they get their news from broadcast TV news.
As the age dwindles, younger people, 26% of adults between 30 and 65, say they use cable TV or affiliate websites.
Adults under 30 use social media 41% of the time, YouTube 27% of the time, as news sources. None of them want to use the options the 65 plus Americans say they use.
My question to you is, and it’s serious given the political season we’re walking into, how trustworthy do you consider the source where you receive daily or hourly information about politics, foreign policy (for instance Ukraine, Gaza), homelessness? There is growing distrust of news media in America and how little the American people trust the news media.
So, ask yourself, ask your spouse, ask your partner, or people you work with, where do you get your news and who do you trust? And I think you’ll be amazed to see the truth.
In the one-year period that covered the Brent Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination fight, and the end of the Russian collusion affair, news media trust fell from 46% to 39%, according to the Washington Examiner. Certainly, food for thought.
One of the things I’ve heard since the Biden-Trump debate — if it was a fight they would have stopped it — as a formidable percentage of us had no idea the physical and mental shape that President Joe Biden, who has been governing this country, is in. And that my friends should scare us all.
— Peter Boyles