The newest Gallup polls tell us that our confidence in two facets of the news media has fallen to all-time low points. “Just 16% of U.S. adults now say they have ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in newspapers and 11% in TV news.”
Is this surprising? Hardly! When the media become transparently biased in their coverage of events, belief in the accuracy of their “reporting” plummets.
Bob Livingston notes:
“Gallup has tracked Americans’ confidence in newspapers since 1973 and television news since 1993 as part of its annual polling about major U.S. institutions. Television news and newspapers rank nearly at the bottom of that list of institutions, with only Congress garnering less confidence from the public than TV news.”
Again, is this surprising? Big Media appears to a propaganda arm of the party currently in power. These days watching or listening to a newscast is like listening or watching a campaign ad for the leftists who believe they should rule the world with no accountability.
“A majority of Americans have expressed confidence in newspapers only once—in 1979, when 51% did. But there is a wide margin between that and the second-highest readings of 39% in 1973 and 1990. The trend average for newspapers is 30%, well above the latest reading of 16%, which is the first time the measure has fallen below 20%. The percentage of Americans who say they have ‘very little’ or volunteer that they have no confidence is currently the highest on record, at 46%.”
So, half the country uses newspapers to line the litter box without ever actually reading them. More and more citizens are becoming citizen journalists to “get the word out.” There is hope after all that the ship of American values can be righted.