One of the unappreciated facts about the founders is that at a time when what was known as newspapers were entirely, there was no talk about being objective.

They all represented a partisan perspective. And everybody knew that they did.

And yet the founders, in agreeing to the bill of rights,

and specifically the First Amendment,

in effect, established the constitutional legitimacy of journalism as a standing independent check on government.

Outstanding is a production of the Washington Stand, your source for news and commentary from a biblical worldview.

Welcome to Outstanding, the podcast where we examine outstanding issues in the news and how they affect

our lives from a biblical worldview. I'm Jared Bridges, editor-in-chief of the Washington

Stand, and I'll be your host for today's episode, which is all about journalism, where

it's been, where it is, and where it's going. In 1972, the Gallup organization

began polling Americans about their trust in mass media. From a high of 72 percent in

1976, the people who said they trusted mass media a great deal or a fair amount, that number has fallen to a record low of 31% in 2024.

Only 31% of Americans trust mass media.

Now, if you split that number by party, 54% of Democrats trust mass media, while only 12% of Republicans

say the same. Something has happened, or better to say, some things have happened.

Journalism looks much different today than it did a half century ago, but in some respects,

American journalism has always been evolving.

From the essayist named Mrs. Silence Do Good, also known as Benjamin Franklin, writing in the New England current in 1722,

to the advent of the telegraph that changed the speed of news travel, to the radio and television areas, to the internet world of today,

there's much that's changed and much that stayed the same.

Today, the local paper is almost non-existent.

Institutional media outlets have undergone mass layoffs in recent years,

...