The media understands that the juicier and more outrageous the story, the more the clicks, views, and revenue. And Trump is juicy stuff. Yet it has had terrible consequences for the industry and for the country. Gallup since the 1970s has been tracking American trust in the media, which reached a high in the mid-1970s following Watergate reporting. In 2016, U.S. opinion that the media reported news “fully, accurately and fairly” hit an all-time low—32%. It was an eight-point drop from just the year before.
