The Media’s Role in a Pandemic

With everything going on in the country over the last few months, more and more Americans are turning to the media for information now than ever before, whether they trust the media or not. In fact, a September 2020 poll noted that only four in ten Americans have any level of trust in the media at all.

What makes it a lot easier to trust the media is when you have reporters like Dennis Ferrier with Fox 17 Nashville. Throughout the course of his career, Dennis has investigated some of the top stories from Tennessee to Wisconsin to Georgia, and throughout this pandemic, he has kept a sharp eye on Nashville’s elected officials, calling for accountability when he finds it to be necessary.

Dennis addressed members of AFF’s Nashville chapter at the October meeting, where he shared some of his most grueling war stories from the past few months and what motivates him to keep moving. If you haven’t seen his work, you’ll want to check it out.

With Nashville facing a budget deficit larger than the state of Tennessee’s and our officials continuing to be irresponsible with tax dollars, Dennis’s teammates at Fox 17 started a series called ‘Digging Out’ to expose bad spending habits and investigate what it might take Nashville to recover. Later on in the pandemic, when there seemed to be discrepancies between COVID numbers being reported in Nashville and how the city was responding with lockdowns, Dennis worked tirelessly to get to the truth—and he hinted to our members at the event that his digging is far from over. And as individuals and businesses began to recover from the pandemic, Dennis was there to keep an eye on it all and report his findings in the Ferrier Files

At a time when all eyes are on the media—and most of those eyes are skeptical ones—it’s great to have a reporter in Nashville like Dennis who isn’t afraid to hold the government accountable and is willing to share his work with all of us. If you have any questions about Nashville, our chapter, or our recent events, please don’t hesitate to contact me: taylor@americasfuture.org.