Trust needs to be rebuilt in the New Year.

The UK media may be breathing a collective sigh of relief. It looks like finally after 3 and a half years of political chaos, a new order has been established.  I imagine many of our political pundits will now be settling into a well-earned festive slump. But this election may have created a crisis that they may want to reflect on between mince pies and sweet sherries. 

 The theme of the election was trust. Does a proven liar deserve the top job? Do we trust the Labour leader when he says he has antisemitism under control? Did Jo Swinson really believe she could be the next prime minister? Trust for our politicians is at an all time low. But it wasn’t just our politicians who lacked trust during this election. The nation’s media was also heavily impugned by a bruising election campaign. 

The BBC and ITV’s political editors came under fire after falsely reporting on twitter that a Tory adviser was hit by Labour activist. Both apologised after footage emerged that disproved the allegation. While Channel 4 had to apologise after they falsely claimed the Prime Minster wanted to control the amount of ‘people of colour’ entering the UK. The actual statement was ‘people of talent.’  

Both leaders launched pointed attacks on sections of the media, Boris Johnson took aim at the national broadcaster after they fact checked his manifesto’s spurious claim of 50,000 new nurses.   While Jeremy Corbyn targeted the press and their owners. It is easy to brush over these small moments after such a dramatic election result. But political leaders attacking the nation’s media is important. The media plays an important role in democratic society. It holds our elected representatives to account and asks the questions of our leaders that the public may want to ask. Its role will be even more important now that the opposition is so weak. 

So how does the media regain the nation’s trust? It is interesting to note that all of the apologies I listed above are about content that first appeared on Twitter. The pace of the media machine as it has rushed from news story to news story needs to slow down so that proper scrutiny can be made. Political leaders who are hostile to the media cannot be allowed to dictate the pace of that scrutiny.  Once the new year comes, it is important that the journalists don’t throw themselves back into the relentless pace. Questions need space. Analysis needs reflection. Trust is not created in a matter of minutes. Let’s take our time to rebuild it.