| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a would-be autocrat of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Our series on trust is coming to an end, which means I can finally share the list I've been curating in my notes app since we started this project in early September: If you have no idea what the Republic of Distrust is, you haven't been reading this newsletter with a fine tooth comb and you will henceforth be BANNED from Bloomberg Opinion Today. Haha, just kidding. Not only do I *not* have the power to do that, I'd never blame you for not clicking on a few e-mails. You're here now!!! And that's all that matters: The series is absolutely still available to read and we made it completely free. So if you're suspicious about science, government, business, Big Tech and/or Samuel Alito's flagpole, kick back, relax and fire up the kettle, because this piece of journalism is worth your time. Speak of the devil, journalism is the final topic in the package. Not to get all we-need-to-have-a-chat on you, but I must address the elephant in the room: Eight out of ten of you don't trust me or any of my colleagues! Here, I have a chart to prove it: Now, to be candid with you, I often find that when "the media" writes about "the media" it feels slightly self-indulgent. But here, we tried to steer clear of industry kvetching and zero in on your relationship with the news itself. Over the past couple of years, the journalism profession has entered what former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller calls a "doom loop of distrust," where one party trusts a certain basket of outlets that the other party barely trusts at all:  Although some outlets have always had a partisan slant, it feels as though journalism's bond with the wider public is fraying like never before. Just this morning, CNN's Brian Stelter pointed out the phenomenon in his newsletter: "It's not enough to tell. In an era of low trust in media and every other institution, news outlets also have to show as much as possible as often as possible. Depending on the story, this might mean linking to primary sources, providing the raw material, or explaining why the story was assigned." Bill agrees: "Major news outlets like my former employers at the New York Times now post the qualifications and experience of reporters alongside their bylines and take greater pains to explain how they know what they report," he writes. "The past two decades have also seen a healthy proliferation of systematic fact-checking," he writes, but that's not enough. Peter Adams, SVP of the nonprofit News Literacy Project, told Bill that purveyors of untruths "can produce falsehoods much more quickly than fact-checkers can debunk them."  If all of this gives you déjà vu, perhaps you read — or saw on social media — New York Magazine's "Power Issue," which featured interviews (and rather unflattering portraits) of "57 of the most powerful people in media." In it, Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait said some nice things about AI that didn't make me fear my annual review, so that's a plus. But the package as a whole — and all the ink spilled after it published — highlights a major dilemma for media purveyors: There is simply too much content out there. It's more difficult than ever for people to find the highest-quality sources of information online. And even if they do manage to suss out trustworthy platforms, they're increasingly asked to shell out money for them, with pleas like, "the monthly subscription is only the price of one beer!" But suddenly you're paying for 25 beers and you're not even able to drink all that "premium content" because you feel bloated just consuming a few. Choice paralysis is at the heart of the problem: "Mistrust of news media, especially in the digital era, is both a supply problem and a demand problem," Bill writes. "On the supply side, in addition to a vast amount of more or less authoritative reporting and comment, are legions of self-styled influencers, charlatans, would-be autocrats, conspiracy theorists, propagandists and arsonist-hackers competing for our eyeballs … On the demand side, mistrust is a byproduct of credulousness, short attention spans, an inherent suspicion of authority, a shallow understanding of how professional newsrooms operate, and an all-too-human tendency to favor news that echoes our opinions or appeals to our emotions." As Bill said, journalists are increasingly competing against influencers, and the line between entertainment and news is blurrier and ickier than ever. Matthew Yglesias — who was also interviewed by NY Mag — is equally concerned: "The biggest problem for journalism is head-to-head competition with things that just aren't journalism. Your Instagram feed, your Facebook feed — those are ways that people spend time." Just read this Mother Jones profile about gossip blogger Jessica Reed Kraus, who eats Conspiracy Theory-Os for breakfast, and you'll get a better idea of just how dangerous "quasi-reporters" on social media can be to the public psyche.  "What's missing in this atomized world is a common pool of information," Bill argues. We've reached an impasse where Americans cannot agree on basic facts. In order to overcome it, Bill says consumers must work on their media literacy and break free from digital echo-chambers. And on the flip side, newsmakers must prioritize transparency and accountability. Only then will we begin to regain your trust. Bonus Trust Reading: Two election law experts, one Republican and one Democrat, have formed a group to educate skeptical Americans about the electoral process. — Frank Wilkinson While we're on the subject of distinguishing facts from lies, let's talk about Elon Musk's favorite nonsentient machine: Optimus. When the Telsa CEO unveiled his robotaxi a few weeks back, the event was peppered with the humanoid robots that danced and poured cocktails for human attendees. At the event, Musk claimed Optimus would be "fundamental transformation for civilization" and allow for "a future where there is no poverty." But before you go celebrating the end of world hunger, know that it was all a clever ruse: "Tesla's people were helping control the robot remotely behind the scenes," Thomas Black writes. Musk also claimed that Optimus will eventually be able to perform all the tasks of a modern-day trad wife: walking the dog, putting away groceries and doing the dishes. But Thomas is skeptical: "I'd expect Optimus to appear in factories long before it winds up in homes, provided the robot can meet the automation industry's standard of a two-year return on investment." In order to make his robotic vision a reality, Musk has taken a deep interest in the 2024 presidential election. Tim Walz had some choice words for the billionaire at a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday, but Dave Lee wrote a (free!) column mapping out all the ways in which Musk's America PAC — that he launched with $75 million of pocket change — is courting dangerous misinformation ahead of the election. "Like the former president, who has yet to acknowledge he lost in 2020, Musk is laying the groundwork for 'Stop the Steal 2024,'" Dave writes. "The reason is clear. A Trump White House would be extremely good for Musk and his business interests." His sanity, on the other hand… Conor Sen says we can say goodbye to cheap flights, which is upsetting because I never got the memo that we were in an era of "affordable" airfare in the first place?? Needless to say, I didn't take advantage of it. Conor explains the post-travel revenge slump: "Excess capacity was one reason airfares fell over the past 18 months after surging in 2021 and 2022," but now low-cost carriers are "cutting money-losing and less-profitable routes" to improve their margins. There goes my paycheck!  Elsewhere in transportation news: Mexico's new president Claudia Sheinbaum wants the country to develop an electric vehicle. "It's not a crazy idea, but it does carry a few risks, particularly for a cash-strapped public sector that faces multiple demands," Juan Pablo Spinetto writes. "The popular EV is just one of the many state-driven projects Sheinbaum has pledged to achieve: laying down 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) of new passenger railways, setting up 100 industrial parks, building one million homes and expanding a subsidized national airline that seeks to compete with private firms, among others." Uh-oh: The World Bank somehow lost track of at least $24 billion. — Mark Gongloff Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is getting the bad news out of the way first. — Andrea Felsted China and India have a long history of enmity, but they're trying to bury the hatchet. — Ruth Pollard Japan's new leader is scrambling to stem electoral bleeding. — Gearoid Reidy Scaring away capital won't help India absorb losses on runaway credit. — Andy Mukherjee Businesses should plead neutrality on issues that don't relate to their core mission. — Adrian Wooldridge Israel and the US are coming closer to saying goodbye to the international community. — Andreas Kluth Carbon markets need to be cleaned of low-grade credits and greenwashing. — John Browne Terrorists attacked a Turkish aerospace company. Character.ai is getting sued after a teen suicide. Charlie Kirk is the brains behind Trump's campaign. This magical powder can remove CO₂ from the air. Nobody knows how big pumpkins can grow. Billionaires think they can buy a mountain range. Mount Everest gets a tiny bit taller each year. How two of the rarest horses in history got lost. Notes: Please send a 3,000-pound pumpkin and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Threads, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. | 
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