Study Sees Continued Decline in Overall Credibility of News Media

[marillion]

On edit: I should have said "Perception of Credibility" in the title.. Sorry...


Interesting study by the Pew Center...

Study Link

The falloff in credibility affects news organizations in most sectors: national newspapers, such as the New York Times and USA Today, all three cable news outlets, as well as the broadcast TV networks and NPR.

Across all 13 news organizations included in the survey, the average positive believability rating (3 or 4 on a 4-point scale) is 56%. In 2010, the average positive rating was 62%. A decade ago, the average rating for the news organizations tested was 71%.

Since 2002, every news outlet’s believability rating has suffered a double-digit drop, except for local daily newspapers and local TV news. The New York Times was not included in this survey until 2004, but its believability rating has fallen by 13 points since then.

Not surprisingly, the partly lines are pretty well defined with more Republicans favoring Fox News and dismissing MSNBC along with the reverse being true for Democrats.

I do find it a bit surprising that NPR, long held to be a bastion of liberalism in the view of Republicans, had a higher favorability among them. Good radio is good radio, I guess (I'm biased, having worked for an NPR affiliate as news director).

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw it out there.

[Captain Craig]

Perception or not I think the truth is there.

The difference, at least 'A' difference, as I see it is that Fox News whether it be their straight news portions but especially their commentary shows(O'Reilly, Hannity etc) make no hidden notice of giving a conservative angle. It's blatantly clear in the commentary shows and only there in some minor instance for straight up news reporting. Most have a hard time discerning this separation of news vs commentary portions on Fox.

The rest of the media from the alphabet's down to PBS like to bill themselves as being middle of the road on all points and the last 10 years they clearly are not. The last 5-6 years especially. When there are reports of editor offices donating 80% plus to Democrat causes and trying to pass off phony documents as real like Dan Rather did the bias is clear. When swarms of reporters stalk out every facet of Sarah Palin's life but sweep Biden under the rug it's very clear where these guys interests lie. Biden makes Palin looking fucking brilliant and that includes silly comments like "seeing Russia from her house". Man has a foot in mouth gaffe almost monthly but weekly on a campaign trail.

But really in a nation with so many news options PBS as a news outlet is obsolete. I believe in PBS programming from NOVA, their documentaries on through SStreet but funding for them as a news outlet is long since past.

[marillion]

And I think that's the point coming across in the study. ALL of us, whether we're conservatives, liberal or firmly in the middle of the road, recognize that news, by and large, is not in the news business any more.. They are in the business business... I LOVED my time in public radio as I had the freedom to do just about anything I wanted with our newscasts with long, in depth human interest stories mixed into the "rip and read" stuff off the wire. I wasn't beholden to corporate sponsors... It just sucked that I had to deliver pizzas to make ends meet at the same time.

I eventually got out of the news entirely in 2000 because I was having to assign reporters and photogs to cover "news" stories tied into sponsors...

My intent here, by the way, is not to create an automatic gainsaying of "Fox sucks vs. MSNBC sucks."... I just found it interesting that all of us, across the board have less and less faith in our time honored news media outlets.

[JarodRussell]

Two problems with news media:

1) ratings and marketing influence the program
2) the involved allow their own political opinion to influence the program

[RoJoHen]

That's why, for the longest time, I preferred to get my news from "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." They have no problem insulting either political party or calling bullshit on other news sources when they're clearly reporting things with bias.

[Kirby]

^^^ Me too RoJo. Frankly I'm sick of all media, they're all in someone's pockets so it's very rare to believe much of what they say. I still watch the evening news, but mainly for the weather, sports, and breaking news. It's hard to have an agenda on 'water main break on Main street'. I'm eschewing all political coverage this year. It's all biased, agenda driven and personal attacks.

[sidious618]

The media is definitely shitty, specifically the television media. FOX News is obviously the worst followed by MSNBC. CNN is ball-less, worried that they might offend one side or the other, and the network stations haven't broken anything interesting in years. At this point, most breaking news comes from the internet and I imagine it'll remain that way for a while.

[Robert Maxwell]

RoJoHen wrote:

---

That's why, for the longest time, I preferred to get my news from "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." They have no problem insulting either political party or calling bullshit on other news sources when they're clearly reporting things with bias.

Those are both fun shows but I would never use them as my main news sources. That will do nothing but give you a very cynical, very distorted view of reality.

[RoJoHen]

I wasn't intentionally using them as my main news source. I just wasn't really paying attention to any other news sources.

[the G-man]

Bernard Goldberg (I think) had an interesting idea a few years ago. Arguing that there is really no such thing as "lack of bias" he suggested that it would actually be preferable for news organizations to acknowledge their biases in the interests of full disclosure, so that the viewer/reader was armed with that information as well.

In a way that would harken back to the old days when newspapers were often affiliated with a political party and even had the the party's name in theirs (ex: the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle; the Arizona Republican). People knew where the papers (allegedly) stood for.

[Temis the Vorta]

RoJoHen wrote:

---

That's why, for the longest time, I preferred to get my news from "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." They have no problem insulting either political party or calling bullshit on other news sources when they're clearly reporting things with bias.

The honesty is refreshing, isn it?

All media has a bias. If they say don't, they're lying. It's nice to see people finally catching on.

[Magellan]

Exactly true. So many people get bent out of shape because Fox news is conservative but really so what? ALL news whether it is intentional or not is going to have a bias. Some liberal, some conservative and some just plain stupid and the audience will pick their preference.

I suppose ideally there would be one "perfect" source we all could go to but if 100 people see the same event they see 100 different things. It's good not to trust the news too much.

[FPAlpha]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Those are both fun shows but I would never use them as my main news sources. That will do nothing but give you a very cynical, very distorted view of reality.

Not true.. they give you a comedic way of looking at news but when you go past the jokes and antics you realize that what they are making fun of is actually some huge things that no one dares to say openly because it would either cost them voters or make themselves look bad.

They also equal offenders too.. it's just that the Republicans offer more to work with

Magellan wrote:

---

Exactly true. So many people get bent out of shape because Fox news is conservative but really so what? ALL news whether it is intentional or not is going to have a bias. Some liberal, some conservative and some just plain stupid and the audience will pick their preference.

I suppose ideally there would be one "perfect" source we all could go to but if 100 people see the same event they see 100 different things. It's good not to trust the news too much.

The reason why so many dislike Fox News is that they are more or less openly biased. They live in a very black and white world and when you apply a broad enough time frame you see that they are contradicting themselves repeatedly depending on who is currently in control in Washington. The Dems do one thing and Fox erupts in outrage but when the Reps do the same 4 years later it's barely mentioned or twisted so much that it appears ok.

I don't know much about MSNBC and their mode but given that i hear less criticism in the same vein i suppose they have other flaws.

[billcosby]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Those are both fun shows but I would never use them as my main news sources. That will do nothing but give you a very cynical, very distorted view of reality.

True... but at least you won't have to suffer through all the fluff pieces on the evening news.

[Balrog]

billcosby wrote:

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True... but at least you won't have to suffer through all the fluff pieces on the evening news.

You make a good point here. Either left or right leaning, it's mostly fluff. What I find lacking in most news programming is a lack of substance.