Do you trust newspaper and television news to get the story right? A recent Gallup Poll indicates public confidence in newspaper and T-V news has picked up slightly in recent years, but still lags far behind levels of trust from two decades ago.
Gallup says overall, barely a fourth of Americans say they have much confidence in the two media. 28% report having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers in the latest poll, compared with 25% a year earlier. 27% felt the same about T-V news in the latest poll, compared with 22% a year earlier.
Gallup reports confidence in newspaper and T-V news slid during the 1990s and hit bottom in 2007.
So, are these two media doing a bad job? Or do they suffer from a perception problem? Radio talkers constantly hammer the so-called “mainstream media”. Are people swallowing that point of view?
If you think journalism is basically untruths, half truths, opinion, and ineptitude … I suggest you try doing it yourself sometime.
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Our thought for today is from G. K. Chesterton:
“Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is Dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.”
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