We know that trust in the media has suffered, with Democrats/liberals have much more faith than Republican/conservatives, no surprise there. But trust among independents also is way down.
But the latest survey show that lack of trust has turned to disgust. AP reports:
Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.
The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.
Asked whether they agreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, 50% said they disagreed. Only 25% agreed, the study found.
Similarly, 52% disagreed with a statement that disseminators of national news “care about the best interests of their readers, viewers and listeners,” the study found. It said 23% of respondents believed the journalists were acting in the public’s best interests.
“That was pretty striking for us,” said Sarah Fioroni, a consultant for Gallup. The findings showed a depth of distrust and bad feeling that go beyond the foundations and processes of journalism, she said.
Here is the key finding in the Survey:
… this study suggests that many Americans are not solely skeptical of news today — they feel distrust on an emotional level, believing news organizations intend to mislead them and are indifferent to the social and political impact of their reporting.
Some specific results:
- Only 26% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the news media, the lowest level Gallup and Knight have recorded in the past five years, while 53% hold an unfavorable view.
- Across all political affiliations, more Americans say they hold an unfavorable opinion of the news media compared to a survey conducted in late 2019-early 2020. This rise is especially pronounced among independents but is also apparent among Democrats — who typically hold more favorable views of the media.
- Perceptions of political bias in news coverage have also increased, with independents driving the trend, followed by Republicans, then Democrats.
- Young people continue to hold more negative perceptions of the news media than older generations, confirming previous findings.
* * *
- Fifty percent of Americans feel most national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public.
None of this is surprising.. National news media always has had a liberal bias, but in the age of Trump national media manipulated the news, something we covered here almost daily for several years. The media decision to shut down and falsely discredit — with the help of Big Tech — the Biden family corruption story as revealed on Hunter Biden’s laptop, likely affected the outcome of the election.
It’s also no surprise that the beneficiaries of national media manipulation – Democrats – have a much higher trust in media. Interestingly, these charts were included in the pdf. but not in the web version of the report:
The national media, which is almost entirely liberal/left, deserves the distrust.
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Comments
Only half?
That doesn’t bode well for America
But who answers surveys anyway?
I have NEVER been asked anything outside of a business transaction survey
Ever
You forgot “intend” – in other words, no outrage. Our future is no within the 50 states, but in secession.
I don’t answer surveys unless I know the surveyor. A good way to avoid three letter entities.
Three letter agencies know more about you than you know. We’re too old, too smart, and too correct to deprogram.
I never answer them (except your one right here, lol).
Legacy media know they’ve lost the trust of the public, but they’re still trying to pretend that’s the result of some conspiracy of misinformation by conservative bad actors, rather than the well-deserved fruits of their own deception.
We’ve seen this before. 30 years ago, it was the Catholic Church denying its problem covering up sexual abuse, and blaming the accusations on anti-Catholic agitators. And there were anti-Catholic agitators… But there was also abuse, and cover-ups by the Church, and the damage done to its reputation and public image still echoes today.
The police as an institution are going through a similar reckoning today. Yes, there have been unfair smears, but there has also been real malfeasance, and precious little accountability. Now people are leaving the profession in droves, and they are not being replaced.
I’m sure many here will be angered by these comparisons, but I stand by them. These are examples of institutions that squandered their prestige and their moral authority because they abused both, and it goes to show the surest way to discredit any institution or group is to rob it of accountability.
Add doctors to your list. After three years of lies, medical totalitarianism, and just plain bad advice, skepticism towards physicians is growing.
Only a fool would work for a liberal Democratic city police force. Just look at how they throw officers to the wolves when a Dem politician needs to pander to their base.
I saw this reported elsewhere, and left this comment:
Why is this finding “striking”? It’s like finding that most people think water is wet, and the sun rises in the east. What should be striking, but unfortunately isn’t, is that a quarter of respondents were so deluded that they believed “national news organizations do not intend to mislead” and that “journalists were acting in the public’s best interests”. How stupid do you have to be to believe that? Then again, 25% of people believe in astrology, 18% believe in “alien abductions”, and 2% believe they have been abducted! So the baseline for stupidity is pretty high, and these people fit in nicely with those statistics.
I agree, but don’t think you can attribute their belief to stupidity.
A lack of critical thinking ability does indicate a lesser cognitive ability…. So yah… definitely stupid
Bluesy, I respectfully disagree. Their critical thinking is just fine. I think they have a belief system in place that dictates their choices, regardless of reality on the ground. They’ve swallowed the blue pill and the misinformation media is their willing tool. Why would they want to reform a media that agrees with their goals, advances their views, and never questions their narratives?
In another thread there was a suggestion that the country is trending left. These findings suggest something different. People are tired of swallowing, especially when fed real misinformation (almost always from the progressive perspective).
It can accelerate as the revelations come forth. The corruption at the heart of the government. The abuse of power. Obama is the architect of what we are living in. Biden a henchman. Time to throw the bums out, especially the likes that have presided over the most recent catastrophes.
Recall the Oval Office meeting on Jan. 6, 2017. The actual insurrection/sedition. If only journalism was still a craft, practiced by the likes of Taibbi and Hersh, two name a couple.
Looks like the press is reporting that Biden is fit as a fiddle. Perfect!
Perhaps so. But, which fiddle?
Bass fiddle. (old joke)
Bass fiddle? Sounds fishy.
Nero’s.
Now who believes the medical community anymore, and that’s my profession as a nurse of 40 years!
“Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.”
And with major news outlets now beginning to say out loud that they no longer intend to pursue objectivity in reporting, the other 50% are clearly brainless vegetables wearing yellow and blue “Build Back Better” buttons.
Washington Post: Opinion Newsrooms that move beyond ‘objectivity’ can build trust
Massachusetts Daily Collegian (UMASS): True journalism can’t be objective
American Press Institute: The lost meaning of ‘objectivity’
All very recent articles.
Kudos to the Wall Street Journal for responding:
Bring Back Objective Journalism – WSJ
The dissonance they have from the poll showing low trust and belief in hostile intent to deliberately mislead is due to their sense of moral superiority and frankly a class oriented disdain. Journalists haven’t been really accepted in the upper tiers of the establishment until the past generation or two. Today’s journalists in DC and NYC largely come from upper middle and upper class backgrounds. They marry into the establishment elite. They are captive to their own sort of provincial outlook and nearly cloistered ideology which reinforces the view that ‘they know best’. The polls about mistrust and bad faith intentions are telling the emperor he has no clothes and they don’t like it.
The precedents are in handmade tales.
Now we know how Biden got elected.
To understand this gob-smacking poll, all you have to do is watch “The View”, msnbc, cnn, and you will understand why there is 25 % who think the msm is fine. Also, the latest poll of Trump v Biden has Biden up by three points! How could there be anyone alive that thinks Biden is doing a good job?
Their EBT cards haven’t gone empty, so… good job.
And, for others, beer is still being made, there is gas in the F-250, and there’s sports on TV. Life is perfect.
Polls, rigged as usual
They don’t need to think Biden is doing a good job, In fact, I doubt there’s much thinking involved – just feeling. I’d bet a very large portion of the poll responses actually reflect opposition rather than support.
So, if (and it’s a big IF) the poll is accurate, I’d say it’s more likely to reflect 3% more respondents oppose Trump than oppose Biden.
The big unanswered questions are, how many of those respondents will actually vote and how will the people who didn’t answer the poll vote (if they do vote)?
I thank the people who watch those and report back to the rest of us. I’m not willing to sacrifice the perfectly good brain cells I have left to do so.
The other 50% need to wake up.
The legacy media reports on its narrative not the objective news
Long ago newspapers weren’t objective but they were honest; proclaiming their party affiliation. Everyone knew what publications were R and which were D. Since the 60s newspapers and electronic media feigned objectivity but were in fact Progressive fifth columnists. Thank God for TDS which caused the camouflage to drop and the MSM became rabid leftist partisans, nothing more than the propaganda arm of the DNC.
Tyrannical elite class owns the media. Tyrants want New World Order and eventual one-world government that they control. Media used to assist with attaining those lusts.
The Legacy Media is right up-front in calling for “Advocacy Journalism.”
“Advocacy Journalism” is nothing more than amplifying and endlessly repeating any narrative that supports your ideology, and demonizing, distorting, downplaying or outright ignoring any narrative that does not support your. ideology,
The anti-medical comments above have their source, I believe, in the “public health” sector, Those MDs also formally trained in “public health” get a Masters degree, so have MPH after their MD when citing.
Realize that most MPH programs are run by Democrats almost excusively, and are centers of indocrination. Most MPH degeed are on public payrolls,
We have seen how MPH holders have persistently lied to the American public during COVID, says this uncontaminated (NO public health degree) MD.
Know also that the editorial boards of New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the AMA, the two most prominent general medicine journals, are pseudo-communists that advocate universal, government-controlled health care. Even England has an opt-out from its very sorry performing National Health Service, with its horribly long wait lists and poor actual health care.
Less than 15% of American MDs belong to the AMA.
“Public health” needs to go.
They could go to Ohio, I understand there are lots of people with few resources very concerned about health issues in a little town called Palestine. Problem solved but I doubt they show up to help a true health emergency.
Just half???
I’ll believe they believe that when they start acting differently. Karnac says that’ll be right after private jet parking stops being a problem at climate conferences.
Has the news media explained or apologized for their Russian Collusion lies?