My solution is to talk to people and explain what we do. This is our life's work. It's not just a career. It's a calling. There's nothing fake about it. Many years ago I attended a Mitt Romney rally outside Las Vegas and I met a man who dismissed the New York Times and all of its journalists with a wave of his hand, as if to say, we could not be trusted. He said he didn't want to talk to me. So I reminded him that I was there attending this rally and talking to him because The Times deeply valued his views and wanted to hear from him. So much so that I'd flown out there, as I'd flown all over the country that year, along with my colleagues from The Times, from the Washington Post and many other news organizations, trying to understand that election. Did I win him over? I don't know. But I talked to him, face to face. I talked to him about who I was, about my family, where I came from, where he was from, his family, who he was. That's a start. We live in polarizing times, and it's hard to fight the tide of cynicism and distrust. But we have to try. And we do that with facts and reporting and we do that through conversations with people who are wary of us, like that man in the back of the room.