What Media Must Do in 2026 to Be Fair, Tell the Truth and Ask Tough Questions

From wars and protests to political scandals, mass shootings and natural disasters, 2025 was a consequential, albeit turbulent, year. 2026 promises to be no less so.

In this challenging environment, how can reporters do a better job covering the news, both nationally and locally, in the year ahead?

As 2026 begins, CommPRO asked several broadcast and print journalists, as well as academics, for their thoughts on what the media should be doing.

“Be fair and balanced!” intones Gary David, program director and host of South Carolina’s Morning News, which airs weekdays in Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina. He notes that while only one media outlet, Fox News, makes that claim, it is hard to find many that actually do it.

David argues that it is difficult to fault news organizations themselves, as they answer to CEOs and financial pressures demanding more views, more clicks and more revenue.

“That’s where I put most of the blame,” he says, adding that this is understandable as social media becomes a bigger player in disseminating news than traditional outlets.

“We all want news that agrees with our views, and that’s dangerous for the country,” David maintains. “Once traditional media realizes it is a war they can’t win, maybe they will return to fair and balanced as at least a somewhat viable alternative.”

Ernest Wiggins, an independent scholar and professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina’s journalism school, believes it would be useful for mainstream media to share their codes and standards of professional ethics with readers and viewers, while encouraging audiences to hold the media accountable.

“This might take the form of house ads in print and on websites stating these principles, or public service announcements with similar messages,” he says.

Wiggins also strongly encourages journalists to revisit the classic 2001 text, The Elements of Journalism, by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel.

“Kovach and Rosenstiel stressed that truth is the priority for journalists and that their first loyalty is to the citizenry,” he observes, adding that verification is essential, journalists must maintain independence from those they cover, and they must provide space for public exchange.

“News should be interesting but not sensational. Reporters must be free to exercise their conscience and question their work, and citizens are partners who have a role in verifying and discussing public events,” Wiggins emphasizes.

Noting that Donald Trump is a lame duck who cannot run again in 2028, Ellen Ferrera, contributing writer for the Moultrie County News-Progress in Illinois and founder and past president of the Illinois Association of Nonprofits, maintains that reporters should be more aggressive in covering him and take greater control of the narrative rather than allowing him to dominate the dialogue.

“Trump should be confronted with hard questions that raise his hackles,” she says, particularly when he makes false or misleading statements. As one example, Ferrera cites a claim that “Nicholas Manduro killed millions of people,” noting that the only individual historically associated with the deaths of millions is Adolf Hitler.

Ferrera also points out that when Trump labeled Renee Good a “domestic terrorist and lunatic,” he did so without citing evidence.

“The media needs to do a much better job correcting him and standing up for the truth,” she adds.