TRUST: First, ban bias

I read The Press articles beginning with, “Americans and the News Media: What they do and don’t understand about each other.” After reading them, I was reminded of Geraldo Rivera and “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults.” A huge promo followed by a letdown.

I say with due respect; You either ignored or don’t understand what people are fed up with. It’s “bias,” plain and simple. Blatant bias we can just ignore. The hypocrisy of subtle bias by skilled journalists, we resent. They use words that aren’t so inflammatory to subtly sway opinions.

Example; “Trump’s zero tolerance policy removes babies from the arms of parents seeking a better life in the U.S.” An un-biased example; “The federal government’s immigration policy requires the separating of children from parents and adults who illegally enter the U.S.” One lays blame in an inflammatory way, the other informs.

In the ’60s, I listened to the so-called “most trusted” Walter Cronkite reporting on the Vietnam War while showing a video of a speaker protesting the war. It left me with an opinion that I believed was true because it came from Walter Cronkite. That changed dramatically when I switched channels and watched the same video played 10 seconds longer. Why was 10 seconds edited out? That kind of deliberate spin is why many people distrust the media. What happened to, “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” I never trusted Walter Cronkite again.

You want our trust? Report without prejudice. Simple.

JERRY MARTIN

Post Falls