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A top media executive believes the mainstream media has become too one-sided.
Paramount Global non-executive chairwoman Shari Redstone said news media should focus more on presenting “facts” and “not opinions.” She also said that “freedom of the press” can be misused by partisans who only tell one side of a story.
“I don’t think there’s ever a time you have to compromise what it is that you say and do, but freedom of the press involves telling both sides of the story, giving the facts, not giving opinions and I think that’s our responsibility as a media company,” said Redstone.
Her statement comes out following the resignation of embattled 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens. Owens resigned from the show claiming he was being interfered with by his superiors.
Redstone went on to say that there's nothing controversial about telling the truth.
“There’s nothing controversial about getting the real story out there and I think companies have not only an opportunity, but a tremendous responsibility, to use the resources that they have to tell these stories and to get them to as many audiences, let people decide how they feel about something and how they react to something, but give them the facts," she added.
Trust in media is skydiving. Managing Editor of NewsBusters at the Media Research Center Curtis Houck said the mainstream media is blind to their fall from being trustworthy.
"It doesn't occur to a lot of them that certain facts are worth including when they decide that they're not worth mentioning at all and therein lies perhaps the most insidious part of liberal media bias," said Houck.
According to Houck, mainstream media outlets like CBS, CNN and MSNBC insist people will blindly trust them, which leads to a more narrow group that follows them and believes everything they're told.
"There's always going to be the hard, corporate left that believes the media are doing their jobs and they always tell the truth," he said. "There are going to be true believers in any sort of profession and people who will fight with you in the bitter end."
Multiple polls show that most Americans do not trust the mainstream media and that trust has nosedived dramatically ever since the first Trump presidency.