Independent Times is the source for independent voters' no-spin news and analysis. Welcome to the first podcast built for America’s largest voting bloc.
Today, we tackle a crisis: A 2025 YouGov poll shows only 29% of independents trust the media. How did we go from the unified trust of Walter Cronkite to a polarized "sea of spin?"
Host Lisa Singer, along with co-hosts Leyla Gullen and Bryan Gallo, explores the history of media failures and provides practical tools to help independent voters navigate the news with confidence.
We unpack:
- The Great Shift: The crucial moments from the Pentagon Papers triumph to the Fairness Doctrine's demise that fueled today's partisan media environment.
- Trust Killers: How major media failures, including the Iraq WMD reporting and the 2008 financial crisis, damaged the public's faith.
- False Balance & Narrative: How the push for "performative neutrality" prioritizes political narratives over facts, as Margaret Sullivan's critique shows.
- The Local News Crisis: The dire impact of social media and ad revenue cuts, leading to over 3,200 newspaper closures since 2005.
- The Fix: Practical steps for independents, including diversifying sources and using news literacy tools to spot bias.
- Independent Hero of the Week: Alan Miller, founder of the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit empowering students to spot fact from fiction.
Timestamps:
- 00:00 | Title Sequence
- 00:45 | Clip: Walter Cronkite & The Unifying Force of the Press
- 01:22 | Intro: 29% Independents Trust the Media
- 03:37 | Clip: The Presidential Battle with the Free Press
- 05:30 | The Press as Watchdog: The First Amendment & The Fourth Estate
- 07:38 | Clip: The Katharine Graham Story (Courage in Publishing)
- 09:30 | The End of Trust: History Behind the Erosion of Media Credibility
- 10:51 | The End of the Fairness Doctrine (The Birth of Partisan Media)
- 11:32 | Clip: The Fairness Doctrine: A Brief History
- 13:48 | The WMD Disaster: How the Media Failed on the Iraq War
- 16:41 | Clip: Judith Miller and Jon Stewart on the NYT Coverage of WMD
- 18:10 | The Price of Partisan Narratives: Prioritizing Narrative over Truth
- 21:12 | Clip: Margaret Sullivan on Hillary Clinton’s Emails
- 22:09 | Major Media Mistakes (Woodward, Caliphate, FOX/Dominion)
- 23:52 | Clip: FOX News Massive Settlement with Dominion Voting
- 25:12 | The Ethics Failure & What Journalists Must Adhere To
- 28:17 | The Bleeding Out: Social Media & The Death of Local News
- 29:44 | The Fix: Practical News Literacy Tools for Independent Voters
- 32:47 | Clip: On Media Literacy
- 35:15 | Independent Priorities: The Cost Battlegrounds (Health & Finance)
- 36:50 | The Human Cost of Frustration
- 37:48 | Finding Clarity in the Spin & Independent Hero of the Week
- 40:15 | Final thoughts, next week's topic, and call to action.
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