Public trust in US media eroding: Pew study
September 15, 2009
Public trust in the US media is eroding and increasing numbers of Americans believe news coverage is inaccurate and biased, according to a study released on Monday.
Just 29 percent of the 1,506 adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press between July 22-26 said news organisations generally get the facts straight.
Sixty-three percent said news stories are often inaccurate, up from 34 percent in a 1985 study, Pew said.
Sixty percent of those polled said the press is biased, up from 45 percent in 1985. Just 26 percent in the latest survey said that news organisations are careful their reporting is not politically biased.
Seventy-four percent said news organisations tend to favor one side in dealing with political and social issues. Eighteen percent said they deal fairly with all sides.
Pew said Republicans tend to be more critical of the news media than Democrats although negative attitudes toward the news media were also increasing among Democrats.
Fifty-nine percent of those who identified themselves as Democrats said news organisations are often inaccurate, up from 43 percent just two years ago.
Two-thirds of the Democrats polled said the press tends to favor one side rather than to treat all sides fairly, up from 54 percent in 2007.
Just 20 percent of those polled said news organisations are independent of powerful people and organisations and only 21 percent said they are willing to admit their mistakes.
The poll found television remained the dominant news source for the public, with 71 percent saying they get most of their national and international news from television.
Forty-two percent said they get most of their news from the Internet compared with 33 percent who cited newspapers.
Fifty-nine percent rated news organisations as "highly professional," down from 66 percent two years ago and 72 percent in 1985.
Sixty-two percent of those polled said news organisations are being fair to the Obama administration while 23 percent said media coverage has been unfair.
Forty percent said the major cable news outlets -- CNN, Fox News and MSNBC -- were their main source for national and international news with 22 percent saying they relied on CNN, 19 percent on Fox and six percent on MSNBC.
Seventy-two percent of Republicans view Fox News positively compared with just 43 percent of Democrats.
Those polled were starkly divided along party lines when it came to The New York Times.
Republicans viewed the Times negatively by a margin of 31 percent to 16 percent while Democrats viewed it positively by 39 percent to eight percent margin.
Sixty-eight percent of those polled said it would be a major loss if large national newspapers like the Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal were to stop publishing.
The survey had a margin of error of between plus or minus three percentage points.
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