Well, the news media has just been given a a massive wake up call.

A report has just landed from AUT showing how much trouble the media is in. These guys talked to more than a 1000 people to find out what they think of the media and they found trust in the media has fallen from 53 percent in 2020 to 33 percent this year.

That is big. Four years ago, half of us trusted the media. Today, only a third.

And this is not a blip, it's fallen every single year from 2020. It's gotten smaller in '21, smaller in '22, smaller in '23 and then smaller in '24.

And the main reason? Bias.

87 percent of respondents said the reporting in the news is biased and not balanced and many respondents shared the view that mainstream news was "clearly biased to the left".

And that is not their imagination, because that backs what journalists say about themselves. There was a study a couple of year ago asking Kiwi journos which way they lean, and 81 percent said left-of-centre.

People aren’t dumb. They see it - and now we find out it's the main reason why they don't trust the media any more.

Now this isn't a revelation to you and I, because we have discussed this for years now on this show -that the left leaning bias is problem for the media.

And we are seeing it play out right now, with this new Government being given absolutely no honeymoon whatsoever because their conservative, liberal and centre-right ideas are an anathema to left-leaning journalists, who rail against it every single day.

Now the real question is, can the media turn this around?

And I'm going to make a prediction- no.

Because this isn’t a revelation to you and I, but I genuinely think newsrooms up and down this country don’t believe this is true. That is my experience of talking to editors in various media. They don’t see it, or they do and they make excuses.

If if they wanted to change it, the bias is so deeply ingrained it’ll be very hard to undo.

So really, the benefit of this research is probably not for the legacy media, because they probably can’t change things. It's for you and I- to tell us we’re not imagining it.

LISTEN ABOVE

Well, the news media has just been given a a massive wake up call.
A report has just landed from AUT showing how much trouble the media is in. These guys talked to more than a 1000 people to find out what they think of the media and they found trust in the media has fallen from 53 percent in 2020 to 33 percent this year.
That is big. Four years ago, half of us trusted the media. Today, only a third.
And this is not a blip, it's fallen every single year from 2020. It's gotten smaller in '21, smaller in '22, smaller in '23 and then smaller in '24.
And the main reason? Bias.
87 percent of respondents said the reporting in the news is biased and not balanced and many respondents shared the view that mainstream news was "clearly biased to the left".
And that is not their imagination, because that backs what journalists say about themselves. There was a study a couple of year ago asking Kiwi journos which way they lean, and 81 percent said left-of-centre.
People aren’t dumb. They see it - and now we find out it's the main reason why they don't trust the media any more.
Now this isn't a revelation to you and I, because we have discussed this for years now on this show -that the left leaning bias is problem for the media.
And we are seeing it play out right now, with this new Government being given absolutely no honeymoon whatsoever because their conservative, liberal and centre-right ideas are an anathema to left-leaning journalists, who rail against it every single day.
Now the real question is, can the media turn this around?
And I'm going to make a prediction- no.
Because this isn’t a revelation to you and I, but I genuinely think newsrooms up and down this country don’t believe this is true. That is my experience of talking to editors in various media. They don’t see it, or they do and they make excuses.
If if they wanted to change it, the bias is so deeply ingrained it’ll be very hard to undo.
So really, the benefit of this research is probably not for the legacy media, because they probably can’t change things. It's for you and I- to tell us we’re not imagining it.
LISTEN ABOVE

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.