Thursday, August 16, 2012

The major news media may be pumping out information around
the clock. But to a great extent, the public isn’t buying it.

A new media credibility survey by the Pew Research Center
for the People & the Press shows that the public’s trust in the media has
suffered a major drop-off in the past two years. Overall, only 56% of the
public has a positive view of the “believability” of 13 major news
organizations. That marks a steep drop from 2010, when the number was 62%. And
as recently as 2002 the positive number was 71%.

The two most believable news organizations are “local TV
news” (65%) and CBS’s 60 Minutes (64%). At the bottom of the list are The New
York Times, Fox News and USA Today, all with 49% positive.

Not surprisingly, given our political climate, the results
were highly polarized. MSNBC gets a 69% positive rating from Democrats and 32%
from Republicans; Fox News, 37% from D’s and 67% from R’s. In general,
Republicans have much less faith in the believability of all national media.
For every source tested – networks, cable channels, national newspapers, local
TV and newspapers – Democrats were more positive than Republicans, except for
Fox News.

The most consistent performer over the past decade is Local
TV News: 68% of the total public had a positive view of it in 2002, and that
number has dropped only 3 points, to 65% this year. Why is it avoiding the deep
decline? I’ll bet it’s because local TV news doesn’t get very involved with
politics. A smart move.