The Office star Rainn Wilson stunned MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle as he slammed mainstream media for losing the trust of everyday people. 

The actor, 59, best known for his role as Dwight Schrute in the hit show, confronted Ruhle as she appeared as a guest on his podcast Soul Boom this week. 

Wilson asked Ruhle why trust in the mass media has plummeted in recent years, with a recent Electoral Commission survey finding that almost half of young people now trust social media over traditional news sources. 

Ruhle attempted to pass the blame onto President Trump and Elon Musk, saying the ‘huge loss in trust in all of our institutions… is not by accident, it’s by design.’ 

‘President Trump won (in 2016) and tons of people were shocked or angry or frustrated and they’re tuning out,’ she said. ‘And at the same time, you have the Elon Musk media machine, they want you to leave traditional media.’ 

But Wilson immediately pushed back on Ruhle’s characterization of a ‘perfect storm’ of right-wing forces that led to the decline, and argued that liberal bias in media and the Biden administration are just as much to blame. 

‘This is where I would push back,’ he said. 

‘When I see this kind of insight and passion being directed at the current administration and the lack of this kind of insight and passion being directed at the previous administration.’ 

Putting his hands to his ears, Wilson added: ‘Left-leaning news media organizations were kind of like, ‘La la la la, everything’s fine. Look, the economy is great, la la la, immigration’s not that much of a problem,’ and really being Cleopatra – queen of denial.’ 

The MSNBC anchor made her remarks on Wilson’s podcast this week, where the actor confronted her with polls highlighting the decline in how everyday Americans perceive mainstream news. 

He appeared to cite a Gallup poll from October, although he did not name the survey, that found that almost 40 percent of Americans have ‘no trust at all’ in traditional media sources. 

Ruhle quickly blamed Donald Trump’s first election to the White House in 2016 as the turning point, and pointed to former White House advisor Steve Bannon as a driving force. 

‘If you remember when President Trump was running the first time, Steve Bannon once said, ‘The goal is to blow the whole thing up,” she said. 

‘And so, I think that you’ve got mistakes made or things starting to slip, while at the same time there’s a concerted effort to destroy the media, because the media — the news media is, in my opinion, the last line of defense of holding power accountable. Right?’ 

Ruhle said from her perspective, Trump’s election being followed by Elon Musk buying Twitter and turning it into X was a ‘perfect storm’ that collapsed faith in traditional news sources. 

‘They want you to go to X, which is a bastion of misinformation where there is no fact-checking,’ she continued. 

‘So, it’s a perfect storm of people saying, ‘I’m angry, I’m frustrated, I’m tuning out, I’m disconnecting.’ And then you have a force pushing it.’ 

As a solution to the loss of viewers, Ruhle vaguely said media should focus on covering ‘what’s happening in America’ – leading Wilson to fire back. 

After the actor said media was acting like ‘Cleopatra – queen of denial’, Ruhle disagreed with his take that mainstream news misreported on immigration. 

‘The media regularly talked about the fact that Biden was not doing enough in his first two and a half years on immigration, even though in the last year and a half you’re seeing the numbers go down,’ she said. 

Wilson has not spoken much publicly about politics, and previously told The Hill he is ‘not very political.’ 

He told the outlet that he regretted remarks he made on Real Time with Bill Maher where he described himself as a ‘diverse independent’, adding: ‘Even the greatest candidate in the world couldn’t really make that much of a difference. But people with compassionate hearts can make the world a better place.’