Amid a Turbulent Media Environment, TRC Nexus Stands Alone

From the Desk of Mike Rusher 

Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. 

A week ago, the Nexus team sat down to review our performance for the year and get a better sense of which topics and stories are resonating most with C-suites across the state. The timing was good: our latest TRC Nexus subscriber survey is also wrapping up. (Shameless plug: if you haven’t taken it yet, please do.)

Against the backdrop of another year of steady growth, we realized it was probably time to tell the TRC Nexus origin story again. One of my favorite pieces we’ve published explained how Nexus came to be. It’s still a great read, and a story that means a lot to our company.

So this morning, we’re returning to a question we ask from time to time: Why do we publish TRC Nexus at all? The answer helps remind us of our purpose just as much as it explains what we hope to provide you each morning.

Let’s dive in.

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There are ever-fewer sources of information that the public, especially business leaders, can trust. We view our role as identifying the pieces of information business leaders ought to know, and providing our best effort at contextualizing and analyzing it. During the week, that’s a tight set of news summaries that you may miss in your morning routines. On Saturday’s, it’s inspiring thought pieces. We’re not always perfect, but our readers know us and know that we do it in good faith. 

Since we launched TRC Nexus, trust in legacy media has only diminished. The latest Pew Research data shows a “majority of Americans (57%) say they have low confidence in journalists to act in the public’s best interests, including 17% who say they have no confidence at all.”

Gallup shows similar data. Last fall, Gallup’s trust in media indicator hit a new all-time low.

We routinely survey TRC Nexus subscribers to better understand what North Carolina business leaders value, and what they want more of. In our most recent survey, that message was unmistakable: readers continue to want greater scrutiny and accountability of North Carolina media. Asked about their interest in that accountability, responses were overwhelmingly concentrated at the top of the scale, with nearly half selecting a 10 out of 10, supporting routine content in this lane. 

That kind of work is not always easy, or comfortable, to produce. But our readers are telling us it is needed, and we agree.

Why might that be? First, the news outlets that purport to speak on behalf of the country, the “newspapers of record”, have either ignored or butchered some of the most important stories of this century. 

When Trust Broke Down

Consider one of the most consequential events of our lifetime, one we witnessed activate and unite business communities across our state and country in ways few of us had ever seen.

During the pandemic, much of the media lionized and unquestioningly repeated information coming from a Federal official who we now know to be deeply flawed. It’s hard to imagine a more important story for America (or mankind generally) than the origins, impacts and appropriate response to a new global virus.

If you’re like me, you probably cringe a little thinking back on those days. Here in North Carolina, citizens were warned, fined and cited for simply going to closed beaches (1, 2, 3, 4). Yet rather than aggressively questioning the assumptions behind policies like these, too many media outlets decided what was true and what wasn’t. They decided what was right and what was wrong.

But something else was happening, too. North Carolina’s business community was fired up and ready to lead the recovery, and Nexus highlighted their visions. Over just a few weeks, Temple Sloan, Ed Weisiger, Kirk Bradley and Doyle Parrish publicly pressed state leaders for a path forward. Sloan urged government to “provide rational guidelines” and then trust businesses to assess risk. Weisiger was more pointed: “Let’s deal in facts, not speculation,” before echoing Sloan’s invocation of Winston Churchill: “Give us the tools, we’ll finish the job.” Bradley made the case for reopening North Carolina’s economy and trusting businesses to balance public health with getting people safely back to work. Parrish pressed for the regulatory certainty employers desperately needed to plan, invest and reopen.

These were leaders responsible for thousands of employees and livelihoods. Their message was simple: set reasonable rules, provide certainty and trust North Carolina’s business leaders to help get the state moving again.

Yet rather than aggressively questioning the assumptions behind many of the policies being imposed, or giving sufficient consideration to voices like these, too many media outlets decided what was true and what wasn’t. They decided what was right and what was wrong.

The origins of the virus, the utility of lockdowns, the rationale for school closures, the efficacy & mandate of vaccines… on issue after issue, conclusions were often presented as settled before the evidence was. Worse, those who questioned the prevailing consensus were sometimes attacked rather than seriously heard.

This wasn’t about open debate or finding the truth. It was about enforcing a questionable, and sometimes false, narrative about how society should respond.

Yes, other examples abound, but this one is enough to make the point. And I know our audience values brevity almost as much as accountability.

Follow the Money

Second, news organizations are increasingly funded by special interest “nonprofit” organizations. We’ve all read news stories alleging pay-to-play schemes any time a politician takes action that favors a monied interest. Yet those same outlets somehow insist the monied interests funding their newsrooms have no say in what’s published. 

Take the News & Observer’s recent reporting on generators at a Richmond County data center site. The story was funded in part by the Green South Foundation, an environmental/climate awareness organization… regardless of stance, one must question whether or not motive is at play.  

News, or Politics?

Lastly, some outlets aren’t even real news organizations at all. They’re created to look like real news sites but are actually subsidiaries of political operations. North Carolina “news” site Cardinal & Pine, for example, is a project of the well-funded partisan organization called Acronym. There are many others popping up in this space. They may produce an informative piece from time to time, but the underlying motive and bias aren’t part of the disclaimer.

Why it Matters to Business

As a business leader, it’s increasingly difficult to sift through this media landscape and grasp what’s really happening. Still, businesses must understand the landscape as it exists because they live within it. And they must, as best they can, be able to discern the truth behind all the right-and-left political rhetoric.

TRC Nexus cannot be eyes and ears to everybody, nor do we try. But Nexus can provide North Carolina business leaders a place to find the information that matters, and when necessary, a platform to make their voices heard.

In that way, we try to equip business leaders every morning with political and business intelligence that they can grasp and understand. A common set of facts used to underpin most American discourse. At the very least, it can still underpin discourse among North Carolina business leaders.

Indeed, Edelman’s trust barometer shows employers are now the most trusted institution on earth, outranking government, media, and organized religion, with a global trust score of 78%. The news sources that inform employers must be equally trustworthy.

TRC Nexus strives to be the antidote to eroding trust in news media, at least for North Carolina business leaders. To that end, we would appreciate it if you would forward this to someone who could benefit from reading. 



Mike Rusher 
Chief Client Engagement Officer 
The Results Company