Former ‘GMA’ Host Joan Lunden Issues Blunt Warning About Fake News

Veteran journalist Joan Lunden, who co-anchored Good Morning America from 1980 to 1997, has said, “It’s a really sad state of affairs,” as a large portion of the American public no longer knows what to trust in the media.

Speaking to Variety at the 50th anniversary celebration of GMA earlier this month, Lunden said, “There’s so much fake news, videos, pictures. They don’t know whether it’s really you. That part of it makes me incredibly sad and upset. I don’t know if we can put the toothpaste back in the tube.”

In a recent report from the Pew Research Center, almost half of Americans polled said they have a hard time telling what’s true or not when it comes to media news reports.

“I wish somehow we could right that ship,” Lunden added, going on to specifically talk about the effects of AI. “I think we’re going to see losses of jobs in media, just like we’re seeing them in Amazon and everywhere else.”

Despite her worries, Lunden said something AI can’t replace is the human connection of “a host sitting there in that chair, saying good morning to you in the morning… There’s nothing that can be said for the chemistry of two people on the air.”

Lunden was promoted to permanent GMA co-host in 1980, first presenting alongside the program’s original host, David Hartman, and later Charlie Gibson. During her time on the show, she covered four different presidencies, five Olympic Games, and two royal weddings. Her final episode aired on September 5, 1997.

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“The hardest part of leaving [GMA] was disconnecting from the American audience,” she told Variety. “Because there was no social media, it was truly a disconnect. It kind of freaked me out.”

Lunden also touched on the continued merging of media companies, noting, “We obviously know that the major networks are little by little all becoming owned by the richest people in the world.”

“We don’t want their opinions and their political viewpoints to seep into our business,” she added, though she said she is a “glass half full kind of girl.”

“I really think that the journalism, as an industry, will be able to stand strong,” she concluded. “We’ll still be here ten years from now celebrating the 60th anniversary, and you’ll still be able to ask me any question you want.”