Semafor To Hold “National Trust In News Summit” With Speakers Including Leaders Of CNN, NBCU News Group And New York Times

Semafor has set plans for a National Trust in News Summit next month, with the focus on how the media rebuilds public trust amid a Gallup poll showing record low approval.

The event, to be held on Feb. 27 at Gallup’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., is hosted by co-founder and CEO Justin Smith and co-founder and editor-in-chief Ben Smith. Those confirmed to participate so far include Megyn Kelly, CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Mark Thompson, NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde, Fox News’ Bret Baier and Joe Kahn, executive editor of The New York Times. Others participating will come from the worlds of news, entertainment, technology and new media.

The Gallup poll, released in October, showed just 31% of the American public had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.”

In November, Justin Smith wrote an open letter to Jeff Bezos after the Amazon founder’s cited low trust in news sources as a reason for his decision not to have The Washington Post endorse in the presidential race. Smith wrote, “The social media that began as optimistic and open turned toxic more than a decade ago, unleashing cacophonous, tribal, partisan, and radicalizing forces, algorithmically serving the lowest common denominator and amplifying the basest content, presenting people with alternate facts that they want to hear rather than the shared facts they need. Simply put, the sources that should be untangling our greatest challenges are making things worse.”

Semafor launched in 2022, with an aim of addressing consumer frustration around polarization and bias in the news ecosystem, as well as the impact of social media on how consumers get their information.