Aimee Rawlins on the trust crisis Onora O'Neill predicted in 2002 and the Reuters and Edelman data confirming it has arrived. This week on The Responsible Edge, why fake news is now a feeling as much as a fact, what local news deserts are doing to communities, and why giving the NLRB enforcement teeth is one structural response to an accountability system that cannot act.
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In 2002, Baroness Onora O'Neill used the BBC Reith Lectures to predict a coming crisis of institutional trust. A July 2026 article by Gavin Esler in The National argues the prediction has now fully arrived.
The Edelman Trust Barometer 2026 found that seven in ten people globally report hesitance or unwillingness to trust someone with different values or backgrounds. The Reuters Digital News Report 2026 found that roughly forty percent of people practise news avoidance. Only thirty-nine percent get news from ideologically different sources on a weekly basis.
In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin discusses the Esler article with Aimee Rawlins, freelance editor and writer covering sustainability and climate for Time and The Guardian, and formerly Senior Editor for the Impact section at Fast Company, where she managed a team covering climate, clean energy, and ESG.
Aimee's first observation is precise. The problem is not just that more fake news exists. It is that people now believe all information might be fake. Reuters found that two thirds of respondents believe foreign adversaries could be inserting falsehoods into national media. Once distrust extends to the source, it becomes indiscriminate.
The conversation moves into what happens when local journalism disappears. Research consistently finds that in communities that have lost local news, polarisation increases and social capital falls. "Instead of having a shared source, a shared truth of sorts, people look for it elsewhere, and that is not in a community-oriented place."
Aimee's magic wand: give the US National Labor Relations Board enforcement powers. Monetary penalties for illegal labour practices. Gallup found sixty-eight percent trust in unions. The institution has the public's confidence. The regulatory body cannot act. "There's zero incentive for companies not to engage in terrible practices."
The episode closes with Esler's closing line from Confucius, via O'Neill: without trust we cannot stand.
If your work touches trust, media, or corporate accountability, this episode is worth your time.
#MediaTrust #InstitutionalTrust #LocalJournalism #SustainabilityJournalism #Disinformation #TheResponsibleEdge
