The print media and the airwaves are flooded with polls claiming to reflect the public’s opinion on just about everything except … the media. Rarely does a polling organization undertake surveys regarding the news media. Of course, we cannot expect the news media – that does innumerable public opinion polls on politics, issues and the economy — to undertake a poll asking the American people what they think of the news media – generally or specifically.
We may be able to draw some comparative information from ratings. In that case, it would appear that the majority of Americans trust FOX News over its cable news competitors of CNN and MSNBC. In virtually every rating survey, FOX has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined.
A lot of the polling information concerning the news media has been developed. It is standard operating procedure for news organizations to frequently poll the popularity of the platform … specific shows … and specific personalities. I have been involved in focus groups that deal with such matters as the “look” of the hosts and anchors – clothes, hairstyles, ethnicity, etc. Of course, they never reveal that information even though it is arguably newsworthy.
But even now and then there is a public poll dealing with the public’s opinion of the American news industry — and even then, it does not get the same level of coverage on the news platforms as the political stuff. When you see the results, you can understand why it does not.
Weeell … you may not have heard that the Gallup organization recently conducted and published polling results on the news media. Their report was headlined: “Americans’ Trust in Media Remains at Record Low.”
Gallup Research Consultant Megan Brenan opined: “At 34%, Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news ‘fully, accurately and fairly’ is essentially unchanged from last year and just two points higher than the lowest that Gallup as recorded.”
In the September survey, Gallup asked, “In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio — when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly — a great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all?”
Only 7 percent of respondents had a “great deal” of confidence in the media. Conversely, 38 percent had no trust at all. None. Nada.
As may be anticipated, there is a significant difference in the responses from Republicans and Democrats. Only 14 percent of Republicans trust the media as opposed to 70 percent of Democrats. This is largely due to the fact – as revealed in other polling – that most of the news is produced and presented by progressive Democrats with a significant bias in favor of … Democrats.
So much for the Rs and Ds. What about the all-important independents? According to Gallup, they are much closer to the Republicans than the Democrats – with only 27 percent trusting the news media. This may explain why Democrats complain about their “messaging” problem. They argue that their message does not get to the public. In reality, it may be that it is being borne on the wings of a news media that lacks credibility beyond the Democrat hardcore base. Most of the public distrusts the message and the messenger. (Another example of the inherent collective wisdom of the American people.)
This is not startling new information. Just a year ago, Gallup measured the public’s opinion in terms of honesty and ethics. Newspaper reports garnered only 17 percent on the honesty and ethics scale. Television journalists were at 14 percent.
The “none at all” and “not very much” trust in the media is an astounding 60 percent of the public. Compare that to the profession high point in 1976, when the same categories amounted to only 26 percent of the public — and the trust level was at 72 percent.
Back in 1976, both Democrats and independents had a 75 percent confidence in the news media, with Republicans at 63 percent. The latest poll has the lowest trust rating among independents ever. Since 1998, independents have been tracking much closer to Republicans – which explains why Republicans win national elections even though there are more registered Democrats than Republicans. The GOP tends to win among independent voters, who are not taking their election cues from a media they distrust.
Members of Congress were at a lowly 9 percent. Of course, politicians are expected to be suspect in their statements and positions. Journalists, however, are expected to be the referees and arbiters of fact and truth – to have the highest standards of honesty and fairness. Distrust based on manifest dishonesty of the news industry is a serious threat to the functioning of a small-d democratic Republic.
The Gallup report noted that “Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.”
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski once said that “it is our (the media’s) job to tell the public what to think. Fortunately, the public is not so gullible.
So, there ‘tis.