Poll: U.S. Public Distrusts Mainstream News Media More Than Ever
As if a shrinking news hole in newspapers, diminishing advertising, and sinking readership isn’t enough…as if broadcast and cable networks pulling out all stops to survive in the ratings-dependent dog-eat-dog world of broadcast/cable journalism isn’t enough…now there’s a new poll that shows Americans distrust the mainstream news media more than ever:
More than half of Americans say US news organizations are politically biased, inaccurate, and don’t care about the people they report on, a poll published Thursday showed.
And poll respondents who use the Internet as their main source of news — roughly one quarter of all Americans — were even harsher with their criticism, the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center said.
More than two-thirds of the Internet users said they felt that news organizations don’t care about the people they report on; 59 percent said their reporting was inaccurate; and 64 percent they were politically biased.
More than half — 53 percent — of Internet users also faulted the news organizations for “failing to stand up for America”.
Among those who get their news from newspapers and television, criticism of the news organizations was up to 20 percentage points lower than among Internet news audiences, who tend to be younger and better educated than the public as a whole, according to Pew.
The poll indicates an across the board fall in the public’s opinion on the news media since 1985, when a similar survey was conducted by Times Mirror, Pew Research said.
“Two decades ago, public attitudes about how news organizations do their job were less negative. Most people believed that news organizations stood up for America… a majority believed that news organizations got the facts straight,” Pew said in a report.
P.S. We here at TMV regret creating such problems for the mainstream news media. But we do try to get our facts straight and seldom messss upphp..
And we’re happy to find out that you think we care (see graphic above).
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11 Responses to “Poll: U.S. Public Distrusts Mainstream News Media More Than Ever”
I’m not knowledgable enough to guess why the public at large is losing their trust in mainstream media. As far as getting basic facts straight, I do trust the traditional media more than the blogosphere.
My main criticism of MSM reporting is the “he said, she said” phenomenon in which follow-up and analysis do not appear to involve fact checking or context building, but just finding someone else to say the opposite thing and then stopping there. Here’s an example of myself being frustrated with a report on climate negotiations a couple years ago.
It would seem that “he said she said” reporting would actually be very frustrating to the reporter. At its worst, it is something anyone with a tape recorder could write. Why would people with terrific backgrounds and specialties (such as science, economics, military, etc.) let their knowledge be reduced so much? Do we blame editors? Deadlines? I would rather excellent reporting with an upfront bias than lousy reporting.
What’s the alternative to a free press? Believing our government? While I believe the claims of bias are exaggerated, I also think we owe a debt of gratitude to the press. Wouldn’t we still believe we were winning the war in Iraq? That the US attorney scandal was “an overblown personnel matter”? That Pat Tillman died in enemy fire? That Scooter Libby was a victim of an overzealous prosecutor?
My biggest gripe with the press, is that they don’t do much investigative reporting, or even put stories in context with what is already known. I remember after Gonzales’ first testified before congress a couple of months ago, WaPo was all over his inadequate performance. It was concluded that he was just another incompetent Bush appointee. But an earlier story described how Fred Fielding had been intensely preparing Gonzo for his testimony for three weeks. So, it seems that the testimony was purposely evasive and forgetful, in order to protect administration officials and possibly the president.
“But we do try to get our facts straight and seldom messss upphp..”
And that’s why we, the readers, come here instead of hanging around at one of those mainstream media ‘blogs’!
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It doesn’t have to come down to an either-or about MSM or Internet journalism. All of us are plagued by what George Bush and Rupert Murdoch, as well as others of their ilk, have down to sow distrust in American life:
http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2007/08/souring-of-america.html
And if you go beyond the Breitbart summary into the actual Pew data where it breaks this further by political affiliation, Dems clearly do not have the same heartburn over bias that R’s and I’s do.
I can’t view a declining confidence in the media, the government, and the professions and a rising confidence in the military with complete joy.
Casual- But I don’t hear much from conservatives about the bias in talk radio- which is so much more blatant. I’m not saying that there is no liberal bias on stations like PBS, but talk radio makes up for that and then some.
Media Too Critical of America?…
So what about this most recent one from Pew? You can see the whole thing here for yourself, but what caught my attention besides the fact that many see that our media is uncaring, they see bias (no surprise, like I said), inaccuracy (I will show a fe…..
I don’t disagree, k, and that serves my point. My brain does not register “bias” when I read the WSJ for much the same reason you probably don’t “register” much by reading the WaPo.
Casual- WaPo is no longer a liberal paper- their editorial board supports the neocon position, and they have been very easy on the administration. Their editorial page has liberal, centrist and conservative columnists like Novak and Krauthammer. The Washington Times- however, has no liberals on its editorial page.
OK, noted as well. Although, it begs the question…..was the poll focusing on the politics-worn-on-the-sleeve personalities or those behind the scenes writing “news accounts”?