How can we get people to trust what they read again?

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Issue #118: an ex-FBI special agent on trust + the importance of asking for money
By Harris Sockel

Maybe you’ve heard of the recent New York Times’ story about Biden and a Parkinson’s disease expert who visited the White House. I’ve been following the responses to it, and regardless of what you think of Biden’s health, that story (and its fallout) feels to me like a case study in the way journalism works today.

Here’s what happened.

1. The Times ran a story with the headline “Parkinson’s Expert Visited the White House Eight Times in Eight Months.” That’s true, but it omits the fact that the expert visited just as often, if not more, during Obama’s tenure.
2. This started rumors.
3. The White House published a letter clarifying that the expert, a neurologist, also looks after thousands of active-duty soldiers working for the White House. They also stated that Biden doesn’t have Parkinson’s.

If you read the Times story, you’ll see they did report that this neurologist visited several times during Obama’s presidency, but the headline feels like a lie by omission. (Not to mention the fact that POTUS just signed a law to help prevent and treat Parkinson’s.) It feels like drama, and it heavily implies that the President is unwell and his team is trying to cover it up. I can see why people are losing trust in the Times after this.

It’s bigger than one misleading headline, though: A recent Gallup poll shows that 39% of people in the U.S. have “no confidence at all” in their news sources, the lowest levels of trust in media since 2016.

Jeff Jarvis, a professor of journalism at CUNY, has been covering this issue since 2012 on Medium. He writes: “Journalism is flawed at its core. It is built to seek out, highlight, and exploit — and cause — conflict.” Even subscription models like the Times subsist on attention. Most people don’t read deeper than headlines, so headlines matter more than they should — and nuance doesn’t go viral like certainty.

How can we get people to trust what they read again? If you want people to trust something, they have to feel like they’re a part of it. “Journalists want to believe that we are in a crisis of disinformation because they think the cure must be what they offer: information,” but instead, Jarvis argues, we’re in a crisis of belonging. We need more kinds of media we genuinely feel like we can be a part of, places where we can learn alongside each other. Maybe the future of journalism will be something more like Wikipedia, just an endless conversation between communities of people attempting to find the truth together.

🔎 From the archive: But can you trust them?

In 2020, an ex-FBI special agent took to Medium to share six signs that help you determine whether or not someone is trustworthy — i.e., whether they’re likely to do what you expect. Sign №1 is something called vesting, and it’s based on the idea that people act in their own self-interest. Does the person you’re working with believe they’ll benefit from your success? Are they actually invested in you, and are you working toward the same goals? If yes, you can likely trust them. If not, they might flake out on you.

💸 Your daily dose of practical wisdom: about asking for money

I learned so much from this essay by entrepreneur Lillian Cartwright about her failed (but valiant!) attempt at starting a company. One takeaway: Ask your customers for money as early as possible. If your early adopters don’t pay, who’s to say your future customers will?

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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis

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