Chuck Todd said declining public trust in the media is being driven by broader institutional distrust and amplified by Big Tech algorithms that push Americans into isolated information silos.
Todd, a political commentator and former moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” discussed the issue during an appearance on Saturday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “America Right Now.”
In the interview, Todd said the erosion of confidence in journalism reflects a larger breakdown in trust across major institutions, not just the press.
“Well, I think the short answer is yes, and I think, look, we haven’t had reliable political leadership,” Todd said when asked about declining trust in the media.
Todd said journalists are often dependent on the credibility of their sources, which can directly affect how the public perceives reporting. He said that reliance becomes a problem when the sources themselves are no longer trusted.
“And I think one of the things I like to remind people is one of the reasons I think trust in media has fallen to so low is remember what the media is,” Todd said.
“It’s a reflection of — I say I’m as good as the sources I have, not necessarily the sources I want at times, to borrow a phrase from the late Donald Rumsfeld, meaning, if you’re getting untrustworthy sources, you may be reporting untrustworthy information right? You get my drift here.”
Todd said that dynamic has contributed to a broader collapse in confidence not just in journalism but in institutions more generally.
“And so, I think that the collapse of trust in overall institutions, the media in some ways is a reflection of that distrust and so that we may be reporting what the quote, unquote ‘experts’ tell us,” he said.
According to Todd, journalists often rely on expert analysis to contextualize events and policy, but that approach can backfire when the public no longer trusts those experts.
“But if the public doesn’t trust those experts and then we in the media, are quoting those experts, they don’t trust us, too,” Todd said.
He described the situation as a widespread credibility problem affecting multiple sectors simultaneously.
“It’s sort of across the board,” Todd said.
Todd argued that distrust of the media is no longer confined to one side of the political spectrum, saying both major political camps now view news organizations with skepticism.
“And what you have now, I would argue, Tom, is essentially the left doesn’t trust the media now and the right doesn’t trust the media,” he said.
Todd said the media landscape has become increasingly fragmented, with audiences consuming news through ideologically filtered platforms that reinforce existing beliefs rather than challenge them.
“We are in this siloed world,” he said.
He placed significant responsibility for that fragmentation on technology companies and the systems they use to distribute content.
“I put the blame on Big Tech and algorithms that sort of, I think, make it too easy for too many people to live in a bubble, a filter bubble,” Todd said.
Todd said those algorithm-driven environments allow users to avoid exposure to differing viewpoints, deepening mistrust and polarization.
He also criticized the geographic concentration of journalists, arguing that the industry’s focus on major political and media hubs contributes to public disconnect.
“And I do think in some ways, there’s too many people — I always say we have too many journalists in Washington and New York, and not enough everywhere else,” Todd said.
Todd’s remarks come as public confidence in traditional media outlets continues to register near historic lows, according to multiple surveys conducted over recent years.
