CNN’s Brian Stelter says journalists “will have to reckon with” the media coverage of this year’s presidential election.
“Tuesday night was the culmination of one of the biggest media failures in many years,” Stelter said on Reliable Sources on Sunday, referring to the overwhelming number of news organizations that predicted a win by Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump’s victory stunned many in journalism and politics. Most polls and analysis forecast a Clinton win, and left many viewers with the same impression.
“This was a collective failure; a failure of imagination. In some ways, a mass delusion,” Stelter said. “And the media contributed to it. So now it’s time for some serious soul searching.”
Stelter acknowledged that many people now “are having a very hard time trusting this channel and every other news source.”
“We, on the other side of this screen over here, have to reckon with that,” Stelter said.
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather said on Reliable Sources the media needs to be “fiercely independent” while covering a Trump administration.
“Now that he’s the president-elect, clearly he’s off on a strategy of trying to intimidate the press,” Rather said. “This is gut check time for the press.”