In a first-of-its-kind study from LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, researchers discovered journalists can increase media trust by speaking out in defense of their profession, while also doing more fact checking. Contrary to long-established practices in which journalists traditionally ignore attacks against their profession’s credibility, Ray Pingree, Doris Westmoreland Darden Professor, and his team found that the combination of fact checking and defending journalism had positive effects, but fact checking alone did not. This combination increased trust in and use of mainstream news, while also increasing confidence in the existence and attainability of facts in politics.