Confidence In Newspapers, TV News Remains A Rarity

gallup.com:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news -- with no more than 25% of Americans saying they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in either. These views have hardly budged since falling more than 10 percentage points from 2003-2007.

Read the whole story: gallup.com

Comments

[anticapitalist1983]

12:55 AM on 08/18/2010

Corporate=government=media=elites. And they are all basterds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Operations_(United_States)#The_CNN_and_NPR_Interns_Incident

[ldmason45]

05:54 PM on 08/17/2010

If you want to know why "so-called" jourNOlist have lost the confidence and respect of viewers and readers than look no further than the garbage posted on here. I consider this a break from the "real" news. Kind of like reading the comics or The Globe. I have found stories in there however that are much more credible and better written, such as, "My Baby's Daddy is An Alien". I have not watched network tv news, or my local news in 3 years. All of their viewer's are tuning out for a reason. MSM now get their white house approved talking points for the day and repeat them over and over hoping the lame will believe them. Good Luck with that !

[Progress08]

12:12 PM on 08/17/2010

When Rupert Murdoch owns the NY Post and WSJ, when the fruitcake Mooneys own the Washington Times do you really think we should have confidence in Newsprint. Sure the NY Times is good and the Post is good, but for every one of them there are 2 papers owned by the hegemonists. Until truth and honor is completely restored to journalism we just gonna keep circling the drain.

[jqcitizen]

04:02 PM on 08/16/2010

"You would be surprised how one bit of political news is so differently construed in different papers. Some public man is a horse thief in one paper; and pick up the other, and he is about to be canonized and made a saint. Then the next paper will say he is a horse thief in the day, but repents at night.

You can tell in a minute a person that only reads one paper."
Will Rogers (1934)

The same is true today with the cable 'NEWS' networks.

[pjwrites]

10:11 AM on 08/16/2010

Let's see, journalists no longer present both sides of an issue, they use biased reporting, they don't bother to check and double check their source materials, their attorneys kill the best true stories, reporters gotta eat and therefore will say anything for the paycheck, and the owners of the publications, more often than not, have a serious agenda to match their lust for influence.

[suemj]

03:07 PM on 08/16/2010

This is about it, in a nutshell. Also, the sensationalism, and issues blown out of proportion to sell newspapers, well d-u-hhhh! Is it a wonder we've lost faith in reporting stories true, and as they happened?

[ctcadguy]

08:49 AM on 08/16/2010

Tabloid Internet News is no better.

All the US media is complicit over these war crimes. Everyone is pushing the Bin Laden line.

Americans are the most brain-washed people on earth.

[raker]

08:17 AM on 08/16/2010

I'd love to see a daily spot here in Media where we can come to share stories of media offenses we encounter every day.

This morning I was watching The Early Show on CBS. I noticed a commercial for Activia yogurt. In the next segment they had their medical person, blonde Dr. First Name, excitedly telling us of a dubious-sounding study that shows that babies fed "probiotics" cry less. Activia commercial, part 2.

[binkis1]

10:20 AM on 08/16/2010

Instead of sharing the stories --how about calling out the outlet ASAP with cc: to all their sponsors...It is important to note that whining on these blogs is not as effective as going to the source and their sponsors...

Complaining is a pressure release but does nothing to correct error..Go to the source--do not let them continue to think they are getting away with the lies and uncorrected distortions!

[raker]

11:06 AM on 08/16/2010

Complaining to the offender is meaningless. Go ahead and tell NBC or CBS you're taking your eyeballs elsewhere. Crickets.

Critical mass is important. Sharing observations and encouraging others to see them too is what leads to, f not change, at least an impact.

[ray christl]

08:12 AM on 08/16/2010

I live in Cambodia,and use the savings from not purchasing newspapers/magazines for my monthly internet access payment. Pulp fiction propaganda is dying ,or just going online ?

[Phann Roatrithy]

01:12 PM on 08/17/2010

The free internet has shown people the light.

[ray christl]

11:45 AM on 08/19/2010

Rithy; I enjoy your comments...your showing me you really think for yourself...we need every bit of that dialectic process in Cambodia.

[Phann Roatrithy]

01:57 PM on 08/18/2010

From my own experience, I skipped reading the contents after reading the headlines. In the end, what I actually read is not worth paying for the newspaper. IT has been almost 10 years I stop buying newspaper unless I need to see the classified section. It's the same with the news on TV which seems to treat audience like idiots for their unbalanced views and news manipulation!

[Ean An]

05:30 AM on 08/19/2010

You're right, it is hard to believe any article in the media such as newspapers, magazines, internet...most of the information is bias - meaning not independent..

[Barbie and Ken forever]

04:33 AM on 08/16/2010

I'd have confidence in them if they actually reported the truth and stop acting like they're Entertainment Tonight. I'd also trust them if they stopped with the false equivalencies. Balance doesn't always equal accuracy. The truth is the truth. If it's harsh on one side, who cares? Just report it. Instead, they try to make everything "debatable" like global warming. It's not debatable. Usually, they have on paranoid fr3aks to counter scientific arguments

[Acharn]

11:36 PM on 08/16/2010

Furthermore, I don't want to watch a bunch of people who don't know anything about the matter "debating" issues that may be important. That's really what's killing CNN, but the other channels are bad too. I love Jason Linkins's Talking Heads column, because it keeps me in touch with the what the delusional right-wing Washington beltway types are saying to each other, but I couldn't stand to actually watch them myself. Then, too, all the channels are biased to the right. MSNBC, which many people call the left-most channel, actually has about three Republicans to every Democrat.

[OBroadhurst]

11:57 PM on 08/15/2010

I have every confidence in those outlets where the long lost art of journalistic inquiry still has practice. Sadly, not very many such continue to have an existence within the United States.

[binkis1]

10:29 AM on 08/16/2010

Try the foreign press --they are not all owned by Big US corporations...They also weigh the pros and cons more critically...You get a whole different view of the US Congress...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/110eddd6-a316-11df-8cf4-00144feabdc0.html

just a small example.

[Acharn]

11:38 PM on 08/16/2010

Al-Jazeera English is good. I live in Thailand and find the Asia Times Online http://www.atimes.com/ to be good.

[ohiomark]

06:43 PM on 08/15/2010

The more they get away from their job as a watchdog and become a lapdog for this administration, they will continue to lose audience and readers. It's as simple as that.

Try some actual journalism for a change.

[hypnotoad72]

07:01 PM on 08/15/2010

Like they were all being honest between 2001 and 2009...

Or before that, even...

[themainpoint]

02:14 PM on 08/15/2010

No surprise when you've got corporations with a duty to maximize their bottom line controlling the news sources and "journalists" being wooed by and partying with those holding elected office.

[hypnotoad72]

07:00 PM on 08/15/2010

Well said!

[andyg]

09:57 AM on 08/16/2010

You mean MSNBC and their master's at GE.

[raphaelbonee]

01:36 PM on 08/15/2010

I have to say proudly I have not watched TV since they went to HD format ... didn't like the way they demanded we buy new TVs ... old enough and cranky enough to just dump the lot of them.

Nowadays all my information comes over the internet. I'm a little disapointed with the advertising cropping up all over everything ... have been eyeing a ham radio set (so gods of the internet yea have been warned ...).

Oddly I haven't missed TV ... all the movies and television shows come commercial free ... don't have wait for the next episode just watch as many as you want ... read as many newspapers as you want ... research content instantly.

[InfinteShibumi]

01:20 PM on 08/15/2010

My Sunday Washington Post was so thin this morning it was delivered quarter-folded (!) in a yellow plastic sleeve. Never seen that before. The times they are a changin'.

[OBroadhurst]

11:59 PM on 08/15/2010

I still remember the days when it was a newspaper!

[InfinteShibumi]

12:09 AM on 08/16/2010

Me, too. I used to brag about it to all who would hear. It's been a couple of years since I've done that. They seem to have turned to the "dark side."

[SaddleBum]

12:16 PM on 08/15/2010

the 18 months of pro-war public relations leading up to the invasion of iraq, with all the idiotic flag-waving and the complete abdication of the primary journalistic responsibility to question authority over matters of great importance, effectively gutted whatever was left of the credibility of the media in this country.

we see them for what they are - shills for corporate power.

[sorrytobeakansan]

05:52 PM on 08/15/2010

fanned