I wonder if we’d be talking about Gov. Tom Perez today if journalists had uncovered the facts of Gov. Wes Moore’s Bronze Star during the Democratic primary four years ago.

Moore’s commander in Afghanistan put him in for the commendation, and based on his advice, the young Army reservist listed it on a 2006 application for a White House fellowship.

He got the fellowship. The medal, though, got lost in processing.

When The New York Times uncovered the application in 2024, Moore said he never again claimed he received the medal but did fail to correct others who mentioned it. The admission came too late to affect Moore’s first election campaign.

“Still, I sincerely wish I had gone back to correct the note on my application,“ he said.

Moore’s former commander resubmitted his recommendation. Months after the story broke, Moore was awarded the Bronze Star. Happy endings all around.

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Well, not really.

When Mileah Kromer released her new poll two weeks ago, the big takeaway was a dip in Moore’s approval rating to below 50%.

“Gov. Moore’s approval rating has trended downward since he took office,” the University of Maryland, Baltimore County professor said. “More Marylanders approve of his job performance than disapprove, but the gap between the two has narrowed considerably.”

The primary reason is the economy. People said taxes and fees, government spending and mismanagement, and cost-of-living increases drove their opinion of Moore.

There was, however, a lot of focus on a subset of the people unhappy with Moore — 24% of the 42% who disapprove of him cited “poor leadership, dishonesty, or personal dislike.”

The Banner’s crosstown rival, The Baltimore Sun, says it created a team of journalists to vet Moore on that middle character trait — dishonesty.

The guv punched back first. His office shared months of emails from The Sun seeking confirmation of his biography with the news organization Semafor.

It ran a story April 5 about The Sun questioning whether Moore exaggerated his military record, as well as his high school and collegiate basketball records.

The governor called it a political hit job at the behest of Sun owner David Smith, a conservative aligned with President Donald Trump. His staff posted more details online.

“It’s actually a very sad day,” Moore complained to MS Now host Jen Psaki two days after the Semafor article. “The Sun used to be our paper of record. It’s now become the paper of the political right.”

The next morning, Kromer went on Twitter to explain what her findings meant and how not to read beyond the numbers. People distrust all politicians.

“To be sure, some disapprove of Moore because they don’t like or trust him or his leadership,” she said. “But it’s not particularly notable.”

Even when people commented about their reasons for distrust in responses to the poll, though, no one mentioned the Bronze Star controversy.

Instead, the poll found, poor leadership and personal dislike were more common reasons.

“Residents who rate the state’s economic conditions as ‘poor’ overwhelmingly disapprove of his job performance, as do those who say they worry about paying their utility bills each month,” Kromer said.

Governors feel the brunt of public criticism because they’re the face of government. The General Assembly might run Maryland, but being mad at an individual is more satisfying.

At this point, you’ve probably forgotten that 48% of people who responded approve of Moore; 9% were undecided.

Moore supporters included people who were happy about the economy, his character, his compassion and standing up to Trump.

The poll didn’t ask about other candidates, but both political parties fared worse. Only 20% of those who responded approved of Republicans; just 30% trust Democrats.

The most trustworthy bunch were neighbors, who earned a still anemic approval rating of 53%. Kromer didn’t ask about trust in journalists.

The governor certainly doesn’t trust those at The Sun. In advance of a series investigating Moore’s past the newspaper announced Sunday, he continued his campaign against them last week, saying much the same things he told Psaki to Semafor for an April 10 article.

“David Smith and these other MAGA billionaires are using local press almost like their personal Twitter accounts,” Moore said. “I think it’s really problematic, and I think it’s dangerous for our democracy, because it’s not just about Maryland.”

The focus on honesty is driven by 2028 national speculation, not Maryland. The governor says he’s not running for president but continues to be mentioned as a possible candidate.

Maybe he should appear less on national TV. Moore gave questions about his biography a bigger audience than they otherwise might have found, and some of his complaints are a little like crying in his beer.

FOX News gave the story whirl, and The Sun responded with predictable outrage. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott jumped in, telling TheGrio that this is about racism and fear of Black political power.

Character is at the heart of Moore’s success, so maybe this was inevitable. By highlighting what he derides as bias, Moore gambled that people will trust him over The Sun.

Journalists face the same doubts among the public that politicians do, no matter who they are. So, whom do you trust?

You’ve probably heard the journalism credo, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

We love credos. They’re a comfort when the future of a free and fair press is an open question.

This one comes from the late Edward H. Eulenberg, a Chicago journalist often remembered as “crusty.” Suzy Schultz, a journalist and teacher, tracked it down for a 2018 blog.

“What I said,” Eulenberg was quoted in 1999, “was, ‘If your mother tells you she loves you, kick her smartly in the shins and make her prove it.’”

The point is that trust, the sunny opposite of dishonesty, can never be taken for granted.

Journalists, Wes Moore, billionaires, your neighbors and even your mom must constantly earn it.