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Today's trust tip: Don't let political squabbles dominate COVID-19 coverage

Hi there. Lynn here.

A month ago, the 2020 election season was consuming national and local news coverage. And now? While the campaigns are continuing and the election is just a little over six months away, the arrival of COVID-19 in the United States has changed that focus.

These days, everyone is just trying to survive. They are depending on their local news organizations to help them navigate the uncertainty they see all around them. People want questions answered about their very livelihood. They are losing their jobs and want to know where to go for help with car and rent payments, unemployment and groceries.

And journalists (like you) are stepping up. You're providing them the information they need, and you're doing it while your own lives have also been turned upside down.

So why do too many news consumers think the media are politicizing the crisis? If you're a local journalist working to explain, for example, how your state department of education is helping K-12 students finish the school year, why are you being accused of taking sides or being in the pocket of one political party or the other?

We told you a few weeks ago to make sure your audience knows what your priority is — to help them make decisions about their own lives. One way to do that is to make sure your audience's attention is on what's happening in your own communities, not on national stories they can get anywhere else.

You may not have control over the national political stories that are being written by your ownership group, the AP or other wire services. And we know that for many of you, those stories are an important part of your coverage.

But you can control how prominently you present those stories and whether or not you decide to amplify them on social media. In the politicized world we live in, highlighting stories that play the "blame game" or focus on red vs. blue could increase the complaints of bias and be distracting for users. When everyone in your newsroom is working so hard right now, we don't need to provide easy opportunities for criticism.

Instead, focus your attention on helping your community understand this pandemic and what it means for them locally. Tell them what you're doing, like our partners at the San Francisco Chronicle did in this column from Editor Audrey Cooper. Focus your attention on getting their questions answered and debunking misinformation. Pay attention to what your community wants and how you can help. They need it right now.

TRY THIS: If stories from wire services or other national organizations highlight political in-fighting, think about whether or not that content should be amplified on social media. Think about where it should be placed on your website or in your newscast. Politicians need to be held accountable, and our communities deserve to know how their government was or wasn't prepared to help keep them safe. But depending on your core mission, that might not be where you want your audience's attention to be right now. When a user is on Facebook and sees a story from a local news organization, let it be one that helps them stay safe and make decisions for their family and friends. Let the story be one that helps them learn how to help someone in need. If we don't, I'm afraid the complaints of bias and other negative assumptions about journalism will continue at an alarming rate.

MORE TIPS: More suggestions for building trust with coronavirus coverage are collected (and easily scannable) here.

— Lynn Walsh, Trusting News assistant director

Trusting News aims to demystify trust in news and empower journalists to take responsibility for actively demonstrating credibility and earning trust. It is a project of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the American Press Institute.