This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser from Bloomberg Radio. So business leaders have spoken, they've been speaking out about the chaos in the nation's capital last week. They've backed off political contributions, uh, from politics overall, from the president specifically. We've also seen social media limiting uh, certainly the president, but also thousands of others when it comes to their post. So time will tell if all of this has more
of a lasting impact. Now. As I've said before, our next guest is constantly getting gut checks from his clients, and I bet he got an earful over the last week and a half since the capital riot. His trest barometer, too, has been a valued gut check for us and our listeners in terms of how the public is feeling about the business world and really the world at large. He has founder and CEO of the Global Communications From Edelman, Richard Edelman is back with us and he joins us
on the phone in New York City. Richard, nice to have you here. Happy New Year, although it doesn't feel so happy and reading through your massive report, Uh yeah, a lot of Americans aren't happy about their leaders, and they really in terms of who they trust, right now how are you look. I think the most important finding in the Edlement Trust parameter this year is that business is the most trusted institution and that business is supposed
to step into the void left by government. Last we talked, which was about May, government had become the most trusted institution because it was wartime and we were doing lockdowns and big spend to keep people afloat and you know, being fired in the pandemic. And now we're in a different point. Leaders of government have deeply disappointed and we feel like we've been lied to. UM. There is no really sign that the pandemic is ebbing, and so it's
been handed over to business to fix. And UM in particular, CEOs have to speak up and stand up and talk not just about COVID, but about systemic racism and about sustainability and UM. You know, it's really adults in the room, and whether it's Jamie Diamond or or or or Scott Kirby of United Airlines, everybody has to talk about how we get back to travel and how we get back to UH normal. Well, so let's talk about, as you say, business leaders now the most trusted institution here uh and
certainly not government. Leaders here, and we have seen members of the business community backing off on political contributions, you know, being very outspoken about President Trump, uh and what happened in the nation's capital. Where were they though, although I will say many members of the business community were pretty critical of President Trump as well through over throughout the
past four years. But I think some would say, well, why didn't why didn't business leaders speak up even more um strongly to say that these things weren't right early on?
You know, it's it's a new learned behavior for ceo s to be public figures their their normally you know, trying to serve Wall Street and serve their employees, and all of a sudden, with this leadership vacuum, we we have a necessity of decency and of making sure Carol, the biggest stat that's fascinating is my employer is the most trusted institution, even fifteen points higher than business in general. So and it's my employer. CEO is trusting in my employer.
UM Media in fact is more trusted than mainstream media. So therefore, people who are employees are looking desperately for quality information and that's what we're lacking in society now. That's a new deal for companies. They're not used to being information purveyors. But that's the demand, that's the necessity right now. Richard, What how did the pandemic help create that?
Because I do feel like you know individuals you know who were able to keep their jobs and stay employed, like the lifeline and the communication between the employee, especially working from home, it had to change, UM. And I do wonder how the pandemic impacted the employer employee relationship.
It became, as you say, um, in a way, the normalizing force, UM was the connection to the office, um, even if you weren't in the office, and that you were getting better facts from the company about return to work or the opportunity to get vaccinated from the company, not from the government. I mean early on the government did this well, Governor Cuomo, others, regular briefings and and it dissipated over the summer and it hasn't returned. And
the magic cures hyde roxy chlora queene. All that just deeply, deeply hurt any credibility that government leaders had. And beyond that, the media has all of a sudden been categorized as politicized biased. Um. You know, people are in thought bubbles and the media has been crippled as source of information. So again, government and media typically in a crisis period are the reliable sources. Not now it's business is turned. Hey, I want to get back to your Edleman trust barometer
that you just put out the Richard. What I want to ask you, becauld you do you're constantly talking with CEOs from all different industries. What are the conversations you've been having in the last week. Well, one is about the position of America in the world. Our trust barometer found that the US is actually third from the bottom in terms of how its owned residents feel about its institutions.
So we're just ahead of Russia and Japan. Japan still reeling from Fukushima and the nuclear accident in Russia as it is, um and trusting brand America and trust in American government has really eroded. It's only globally, and it's just above China. We're down there with Italy and Spain. We're not up there with Germany, Canada, et cetera. So
that's a big concern. I'm also hearing from CEOs about how we're going to work with government and the idea that some of these problems for example, up skilling, job training, etcetera. That has to be done with government. Uh and and similarly sustainability has to be done with government. Yeah, we can get people to do cold water wash, but you know the big big ideas, you know, Starbucks taking straws out of the cups, that those are all big moves. But there has to be a strategy over time about
UM car efficiency, you know, oil do they do? They feel it's going to be more difficult with this incoming by the administration than it was with the Trump administration. I think it's going to be a different set of objectives and you know, to rejoin the Paris Accord, A lot of the CEOs are in favor UM to be more UM front and center about infrastructure, so America is more competitive. Everybody's for that. And we also have to get through the next four or five months until the
number of people get vaccinated. And our study was so scary about to the number of people who were prepared to get vaccinated right away, only one third of Americans and one third in a year, and one third never. And that's completely against what everybody expected about the solve, which is you get to vaccine. Everybody does it. No, we have a lot of disinformation out there, and we we have to tell people who's in the clinical trials, why are they there, what's the success levels, the low
level of side effects, and get them to take the shot. Yeah. I think this is like not playing at all. How we all anticipated right with you know, for so long over the summer we were talking about, you know, everybody just wants the vaccine, let's just get it. But it is playing out very differently. And this coming just on the heels of the President kind of laying out his plans and to try and get more vaccines out to people much more quickly than they have because we know
this is key to reopening the economy. Talk to me a little bit about traditional media and what the findings were, because I find this interesting and I think, you know, our country is doing a bunch of soul searching. I think media is too in terms of how we cover things. Well. I think that uh, you know, Bloomberg and others have played it up the middle, and you need to lead the way in not just following tweets. You know, there
needs to be original reporting. The media needs to have the story agenda as opposed to politicians who tweet and then the media follows. And also the media needs to be seen as a middle ground player as opposed to associating with one side or the other. And again we need to be sure that what you say is true. Right. Well,
so okay, I'm important. I'm curious about because it's interesting and I'm sure the CEO that you talked with, I mean, everybody has been leaning in for years is about digital platforms and social media strategies and the importance of them right in terms of getting corporate messages out are reaching
consumers at the same time. UM, I wonder if there's any consensus or anything that you're hearing in terms of the responsibilities of the big tech and the big social media companies here who have all of a sudden now stepped in and you know, kind of limiting the president and certain other platforms. But I just do wonder what you're hearing and what might be Carroll part part part
of it. Part of it is our own problem, which is information hygiene, which is to say, check multiple sources, don't share stories until you're sure that what is in something is accurate. Um, And we have to do better. Only a quarter of the people do at in our studies say that they share stories right away without checking the source, and only say they actually go to multiple sources.
And so we're causing our own problem. Uh. Also, I think that business in particular and government as well, contribute to the social media flow, make sure that quality material is getting in front of people so they can make good decisions, as opposed to just going off of what one person's experience was on the basis of you know, some bad event, right, which is the truth? That's not that's not true. It's an experience, but it doesn't make
a truth correct. That's a conversation we've been having a lot. I certainly in my personal life, but even around the news. I mean, truth is truth and the truth is fact checked. Truth has third party corroboration, it's not just one person's view. Well, UM, got about forty seconds. You gotta kind of take away from this latest trust parometer that you guys have put out. I just think it's a moment for business to speak
up and stand up in business. You know, over the summer did a lot during um in the wake of the murder George Floyd, and now business has to do even more on vaccination, on job retraining, on getting us back to work safely. Um, but most of all, ceo s to be adults in the room and bring the two parties together and demand that they stop being political and and and and that we have work to do in this country. This is a time for de politicizing. That's the word. Well, I'm going to leave it on
that note. I think it's a good note for us all. Uh, certainly as we head into the inauguration next week. Richard, thank you so much. Stay safe. Richard Edelman, chief executive officer at Edelman, on the phone in New York City,