Only 1in3 liberals trust television news, only 1in4 trust newspapers

[monovillage]

It's not just a conservative or moderate thing to distrust our newspaper and television media, even liberals find themselves with little confidence in big media.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/163097/americans-confidence-newspapers-continues-erode.aspx

Confidence in News Institutions Low Across Groups

Overall, Americans in all key demographic and socioeconomic groups express low levels of confidence in news institutions. Negativity varies somewhat by age, education, and gender.

Two in 10 Americans aged 18 to 64 have high confidence in television news, compared with three in 10 seniors. But young adults have the most confidence in newspapers across age groups -- as was the case last year -- with three in 10 expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence.

Americans with higher levels of education -- college or beyond -- are less confident in TV news than those with only some or no college education. However, Americans of all educational backgrounds express similarly low confidence in newspapers.

 

[sixone]

Meh. I bet if you did the same poll about specific stories the same media outlets covered, the level of trust would be much higher for all stories, overall.

It's one thing to claim they're not trustworthy, but when they're telling you what you want to hear, you're going to be much more likely to trust them.

 

[berzerker60]

It's a question of why educated people don't trust cable news. I don't trust cable news because they do a terrible job of informing people about important news stories (compare CNN's daily repetition vs. what's in the NYT that day or Economist that week, it's no comparison), and are full of false equivalences ("Party A says Party B eats babies, Party B denies it. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle!").

I don't distrust it because it sometimes tells me reality doesn't agree with my ideology, and therefore it must be ~*biased*~.

 

[First]

It's telling that (lower educated) conservatives trust TV news more.

 

[Anarchist420]

I don't trust much more than LRC.

I'd love to see the the govt exposed so that CNN, ABC, MSNBC, Fox, et al., go under for all the lies they've told on behalf of the welfare-warfare State.

 

[woolfe9998]

I strongly suspect that liberals have entirely different concerns about media than conservatives. Conservatives think the media is politically biased against them. Liberals think it's corporatized and isn't really trying to deliver the news in a manner consistent with the public's interest, but is instead delivering distorted and over-simplified drivel in order to make a profit.

 

[Attic]

Meh. I bet if you did the same poll about specific stories the same media outlets covered, the level of trust would be much higher for all stories, overall.

It's one thing to claim they're not trustworthy, but when they're telling you what you want to hear, you're going to be much more likely to trust them.

This.


I'd be interested in how libs tested in this poll before and after the scandals dropped.

 

[blackangst1]

Liberals remain the most confident in newspapers -- although not by much -- with 31% putting a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in them this year.

Liberals' and moderates' confidence improved this year after tumbling in 2012. Now these groups express more confidence in television news than do conservatives

Conservatives seem to be most critical not only of television news, but also of the mass media in general

Interesting. I guess liberals believe the press more than any other group. Who knew?

 

[woolfe9998]

Interesting. I guess liberals believe the press more than any other group. Who knew?

Yeah, by a paltry few percentage points. Considering the generally low confidence that the public seems to have in the news media, that isn't saying much.

 

[lotus503]

I haven't trusted MSM since the 24 hour news cycle was introduced.

Doesn't mean I don't occasionally watch, I just treat what I read or hear with skepticism.

 

[berzerker60]

Really everyone should still read (and pay for) newspapers, both local and national. Consider it a tax that pays for the public service of keeping politicians and corporations at least remotely accountable.

If you ignore the editorial pages, the NYT and WSJ are still miles ahead of anything on TV other than probably PBS and maybe the BBC. There are still a few good news weeklies left too (the Economist is my favorite, even though I don't agree with its strong laissez-faire / free market / no tax classic liberal perspective), even though some have taken the Newsweek route to become complete garbage. We still need local papers too, though, because even with weaker coverage, they're the only ones who will care if your mayor is planning a road through your neighborhood school or whatever.

 

[monovillage]

Really everyone should still read (and pay for) newspapers, both local and national. Consider it a tax that pays for the public service of keeping politicians and corporations at least remotely accountable.

If you ignore the editorial pages, the NYT and WSJ are still miles ahead of anything on TV other than probably PBS and maybe the BBC. There are still a few good news weeklies left too (the Economist is my favorite, even though I don't agree with its strong laissez-faire / free market / no tax classic liberal perspective), even though some have taken the Newsweek route to become complete garbage. We still need local papers too, though, because even with weaker coverage, they're the only ones who will care if your mayor is planning a road through your neighborhood school or whatever.

Why would I pay for a biased media that refuses to represent my side of the debate fairly? Why should I reward what is basically a Democratic Party pep squad?

 

[berzerker60]

If you seriously believe that the entire media is out to get you and in the Democratic party's pocket, I don't know what to tell you. Enjoy your bubble, I guess. FYI, the Wall Street Journal and Economist are about as far from bring Democratic perspectives as you can get this side of Freep, but they're still great news sources (if, as I said, you ignore the editorials).

The rest of us should pay for newspapers, because in reality, it's important to have a Fourth Estate checking up on government, even if they're not always great at the job.

 

[shadow9d9]

Why would I pay for a biased media that refuses to represent my side of the debate fairly? Why should I reward what is basically a Democratic Party pep squad?

The media is biased towards conservatives, but keep fighting those phantoms!

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...company-all-discussions-of-media-bias/257961/

 

[hal2kilo]

I strongly suspect that liberals have entirely different concerns about media than conservatives. Conservatives think the media is politically biased against them. Liberals think it's corporatized and isn't really trying to deliver the news in a manner consistent with the public's interest, but is instead delivering distorted and over-simplified drivel in order to make a profit.

That's about right for me.

 

[piasabird]

Not many people even watch network channels. TV is dying. I only watch korean TV.

 

[Smoblikat]

I strongly suspect that liberals have entirely different concerns about media than conservatives. Conservatives think the media is politically biased against them. Liberals think it's corporatized and isn't really trying to deliver the news in a manner consistent with the public's interest, but is instead delivering distorted and over-simplified drivel in order to make a profit.

Well...........ya.

Pretty much sums up everything I wanted to say.

 

[Texashiker]

I think a major problem with big media is they push an agenda rather than reporting the news in an unbiased manner.

Take the huffington post for example. Every few days they run an article about how many people have been killed with guns. I have yet to see huffpost run the same type of article on lung cancer and smoking, or drinking and driving.

By focusing on a single issue that kills people like what huffpost does, they show their biased towards certain social issues.

 

[hal2kilo]

I think a major problem with big media is they push an agenda rather than reporting the news in an unbiased manner.

Take the huffington post for example. Every few days they run an article about how many people have been killed with guns. I have yet to see huffpost run the same type of article on lung cancer and smoking, or drinking and driving.

By focusing on a single issue that kills people like what huffpost does, they show their biased towards certain social issues.

Still don't know the difference between opinion journalism and straight news yet.

psst... huffington posts leans left.