We're experiencing a level of distrust in media like never before. The divide is strong, people only favoring highly specific outlets because of different agendas being favored. That's not to mention the war on misinformation behind the scenes, how so frequently things could be made up if they feel even mildly legitimate. Consequently, everyone is on high alert and there's a lot of pointed fingers going around. Some feel like this could all be traced back to the Trump administration, even before his reelection. However, Rainn Wilson, aka Dwight from The Office, begs to differ.
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Recently, he spoke with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle for his Soul Boom podcast about the public's increasing distrust in mainstream media. Ruhle firmly believes the Trump and Elon Musk tandem are the root of the problem. "President Trump won and tons of people were shocked or angry or frustrated and they're tuning out," she tells Wilson. "And at the same time, you have the Elon Musk media machine, because they want you to leave traditional media, they want you to go to X, which is a bastion of misinformation."
Rainn Wilson Doesn't Place Any Blame on Donald Trump for Problems With Modern Media
Rainn finds this perspective a little convenient. Ultimately, the actor believes that Ruhle's perspective lets left-leaning media off the hook for not criticizing Joe Biden's failures enough. Consequently, it roots in a bias to the viewer at home and causes them to check out. "This is where I would push back, when I see this kind of insight and passion being directed at the current administration," Wilson says. "The lack of this kind of insight and passion being directed at the previous administration... left-leaning news media organizations were kind of like, 'La la la la, everything's fine,'"
Ruhle retorts that the sentiment is actually quite the opposite. She argues that the media frequently took aim at Biden for how his administration handled immigration. Ultimately, Stephanie fervently believes that conservative media succeeds in tackling uncomfortable topics. Where other platforms fail, conservative platforms serve it straight to the point.
