COLUMN: In Austin, trust in local news was more than a talking point

By David Sommers Center for Integrity in News Reporting March 5, 2026 —The Center for Integrity in News Reporting’s (CFINR) National Journalism Awards attracted a record level of interest in their third year, with submitted entries up 213% from last year and up 289% from the program’s first year. Submissions in the 2025 annual awards cycle came from journalists and news organizations in at least 35 states, reflecting a broader national footprint for awards that recognize objective and impartial news reporting. The field also included entries from numerous national journalism organizations. A new Investigative Reporting award helped drive the increase, drawing nearly 100 entries in the first year of the new category. CFINR added the category to recognize in-depth, fact-based reporting that holds institutions accountable while adhering to impartial and objective newsgathering standards. Judges have begun reviewing submissions and winners will be announced at a national gala in Washington, D.C. , on May 19, 2026. Additional event details will be released in the weeks ahead. Now in their third year, the CFINR awards were created to highlight journalism that prioritizes objective and impartial news reporting, guided by the principle associated with publisher Adolph Ochs: “to give the news impartially, without fear or favor.” For the current awards cycle, CFINR will present six national prizes, each carrying a $25,000 cash award, for a total of $150,000. Categories include Broadcast, Cable, Digital, Investigative Reporting, Print, and reporting by members of the White House Correspondents’ Association. The contest is designed to be accessible and journalist-driven. There are no entry fees and no nomination process. Journalists and editors may submit work directly, and entries are evaluated as impartial and objective news reporting, not opinion, commentary or advocacy. Eligible work for this cycle included reporting published or aired between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025. “The growth in participation signals rising awareness among journalists and news organizations of an awards program focused specifically on objective, impartial news reporting — and a willingness to put that work forward for national recognition consideration,” said CFINR Executive Director Rufus Friday. David Sommers is the consulting communications director for the Center for Integrity in News Reporting

February 12, 2026 —Leaders of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting (CFINR) have spent the past several months delivering a consistent message to press associations across the country: trust in journalism has eroded, but it can be rebuilt through objectivity, transparency and discipline. Speaking to journalists, publishers and newsroom leaders at the Kentucky Press Association in Louisville, the Minnesota Newspaper Association in Minneapolis, the North Carolina Press Association in Cary, and the national Newspaper Association Managers conference in Washington D.C., CFINR Executive Director Rufus Friday outlined the organization’s growing national footprint and urged newsrooms to recommit to impartial reporting at a time of historic public skepticism. Additional speeches and visits have also included press associations in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. “Journalism still matters,” Friday told attendees at the Kentucky Press Association’s winter convention in January. “And journalism still needs every single one of you.” Across the four appearances, Friday emphasized that declining trust in the media is not anecdotal, but measurable. Citing long-term Gallup polling , he noted that public confidence in the news media has fallen to levels not seen in five decades, with just 28 percent of Americans expressing trust. “Trust in the media in America is at its lowest point in 50 years,” Friday said during his Minnesota address. “This is not just an opinion; it’s a reality backed by data.” Friday told press association leaders that trust has become polarized as well as diminished, with Americans increasingly divided over which outlets they consider credible. In that environment, he argued, objectivity and clarity are not abstract ideals but practical necessities. “In moments of tension, uncertainty and fear,” he said in Minnesota, “clear-headed, impartial reporting is not just a professional ideal. It’s a public service.” At all four stops, Friday framed the Center’s work as a response rooted in action rather than criticism. Founded in 2024, CFINR focuses on recognizing impartial and objective news reporting, strengthening state-level journalism awards, partnering with journalism schools and encouraging news organizations to publicly articulate their core journalistic values. “Our mission is simple, but it is not small,” Friday said in Kentucky. “To restore trust in journalism through fairness, objectivity and transparency.” A central focus of the speeches was the Center’s expanding awards program . CFINR now presents six national awards of $25,000 each for objective reporting across print, broadcast, cable, digital and investigative journalism, along with reporting by members of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Unlike many journalism contests, the awards have no entry fee and allow journalists to submit work directly. “These awards send one simple message,” Friday said. “Objective journalism still matters and we go all out in recognizing and rewarding these journalists for it.” The organization is also expanding state-level awards through partnerships with press associations. With support from the Southern Newspaper Publisher’s Association Foundation and the Stanton Foundation , CFINR will soon offer $5,000 awards for impartial reporting in nearly two dozen states, with the goal of eventually reaching all 50. Friday told national association managers that recognition matters most when it happens close to home. “Trust in media is built locally,” he said. “It is built in city halls, school board meetings and courtrooms.” Another recurring theme was transparency. Friday repeatedly urged news organizations to adopt and prominently display statements of core journalistic values , drawing a clear line between reporting and opinion. “When readers know what you stand for, they stop guessing — and start believing,” he said during the Kentucky luncheon. “Credibility is a newsroom’s greatest asset and impartiality is its strongest source of trust.” Throughout the speeches, Friday emphasized that rebuilding trust will not happen through a single initiative or message, but through sustained, everyday decisions inside newsrooms. “Trust isn’t rebuilt by one speech or one survey,” he said in Washington, D.C.. “It’s rebuilt one decision, one headline, one newsroom policy at a time.” Associations, universities, or organizations interested in inviting a CFINR speaker can contact Rufus Friday at rfriday@cfinr.org .

" Don’t blame rapacious owners for the loss of public trust. Blame biased, incompetent reporting. "

"We need the facts more quickly, more soberly, in greater depth."

Opinion: Pentagon wants a ‘refocus,’ but Stripes hasn’t wavered from its true mission

Dec 19, 2025 — Maine’s Bangor Daily News (BDN) has begun publishing a statement of core journalistic values — a move that strengthens the paper’s commitment to transparency and accountability and mirrors the core principles advocated by the Center for Integrity in News Reporting (CFINR). Starting in the Dec 18, 2025 print edition, the publication began including a summary version of its values statement, accompanied by a QR code linking to the full version. The complete statement, available online , details the newsroom’s commitment to truth‑seeking, independent journalism and public accountability. It articulates standards such as objective reporting, independence from political alignment, and transparency when errors occur. In addition to the official values statement, the paper published a bylined column by Bangor Daily News Executive Editor Dan MacLeod explaining the newsroom’s philosophy and purpose. In What BDN journalism stands for, MacLeod emphasizes the newsroom’s commitment to high‑quality reporting that connects Mainers and upholds objectivity and fairness. CFINR Communications Consultant Cassandra Webb worked closely with BDN Director of Development Jo Easton, who championed the values adoption process internally. Webb praised the publication of the values statement as an important milestone. “We’re thrilled to see the Bangor Daily News formally publish its statement of core journalistic values and to know they’ll be prominently accessible both online and in print,” said Webb. “The standalone page, site links, and QR code are exactly the kind of transparency we hope to encourage.” The Bangor Daily News — founded in 1889 and published six days a week — has been owned by the Towle‑Warren family for four generations. Current publisher Richard J. Warren is the great‑grandson of J. Norman Towle, who purchased the paper in 1895. Since 2018, the Bangor Daily News has been the only independently owned daily newspaper in the state of Maine. Founded in 2024 by Walter E. Hussman Jr., The Center for Integrity in News Reporting is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to improving public trust in journalism and strengthening the standards that once earned broad public confidence through objectivity and impartiality in news reporting.

Center’s state-level awards Expansion now covers 20 states

November 15, 2025 —For more than 160 years, Stars and Stripes has served as an independent source of news for America’s service members around the world — operating uniquely inside the Department of Defense while fiercely guarding its editorial independence. In a wide-ranging conversation with Editor&Publisher , Stripes Publisher and CEO Max Dee Lederer Jr. reflected on the paper’s mission, the pressures of publishing within a government framework, the challenges of operating globally and the future of military journalism in the age of AI. Read the full article and watch the Vodcast interview at this link . 

The following op/ed was first published in the Dallas Morning News on Oct 31, 2025 and is reprinted here with permission: To restore trust, the news media needs to reexamine itself By Walter E. Hussman Jr. Here are important questions for all Americans to consider: how can we have a sustainable, even a survival democratic republic without a well informed public? And how can we have a well informed public if they do not trust the news media? There is no question that the public has lost confidence in the news media in America. The Gallup organization does an annual poll on trust in US institutions. Back in the 1970s, trust in news at times exceeded 70%. In the Gallup poll just released this October, trust in the news media dropped to an all-time low. Only 28% of the American public have a “great deal or a fair amount of trust” in news reporting. It is well documented why Americans don’t trust news. Back in the 1970s, when Walter Cronkite was perhaps the most trusted man in America, he gave the news objectively; he never offered his own opinions. Today there is way too much opinion in news reporting. This was verified when iGallup, with the help of the Knight Foundation, interviewed 20,000 Americans across all 50 states, and released a report in 2020. Here are the exact quotes from that survey: “A majority of Americans currently see a great deal (46%) or a fair amount (37%) of political bias in news coverage. 68% of Americans say they see too much bias in the reporting of news that is supposed to be objective as a major problem…..” In 2021 the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University in England did 92,000 interviews in 46 countries. Responding to the question “do you trust the news media in your country?”, Finland was the highest at 65%. The United States was dead last at 29%. To borrow a famous Texas phrase, “Houston, we’ve got a problem.” But it’s not Houston, it’s America. Some argue that people don’t want objective news anymore, they just want their own biases confirmed. That is true for a minority of Americans., but not for the majority. When Reuters did a poll of 80,000 people in 40 countries in 2021, they asked: do you want to get your news from an organization with no particular point of view, one that confirms your point of view, or one that challenges your point of view. Both 60% of Americans and worldwide wanted news from an organization with no particular point of view. There is a segment that wants news reporting to confirm the point of view, but it’s half that number at 30%. The majority of Americans want impartial, objective news, but many wonder where can they go to get it? Instead of blaming the public, the news industry needs to reexamine itself. A 2023 survey by the Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State asked 75 editors around the country, many of them at websites, how they felt about objectivity as a news standard. Virtually without exception, they all said objectivity needed replacing. A dictionary definition of objectivity is: “Not influenced by personal feelings; interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased“ To most of the public that definition defines what they want in news reporting.It seems that some editors don’t like what the public wants. While the lack of trust has accelerated, it’s not unprecedented. In the late 19th century, newspapers aligned themselves with one political party or the other. That’s why you still see the vestiges of that era with names like “Democrat“ or “Republican” in their mastheads. Then an entrepreneurial newspaper owner from Chattanooga, Adolph Ochs, came to New York and got control of the New York Times, which was in receivership. He confronted lots of problems with yellow journalism, sensationalism, and partisanship rampant in the press. He came up with an editorial strategy, which was also a great business strategy. Rather than aligning himself politically one way or the other, he decided his newspaper would be independent. His first day as publisher he published one of the great phrases in American journalism: "...to give the news impartially, without fear or favor…” That phrase from some 130 years ago could be the key to rebuilding trust in news reporting today in America. His phrase means you do not favor one side or the other, and you demonstrate that by reporting the news impartially. With so much misinformation and disinformation online today, we need the traditional news media to go back to its traditional values; not just by providing impartial news for the sake of their survival, but for the future of our democratic republic. Walter E. Hussman Jr., born in Texarkana, was publisher of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the largest newspaper in Arkansas, and its predecessor for 48 years, and is currently chairman of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting.