Americans Distrust Our Media (Wonder Why?)

With the American media largely ignoring all of the lies, scandals, and other important issues surrounding the Democrats’ time in office it should be little wonder why so many people are unhappy with and mistrusting of of our media:

The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.

Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate. That percentage had fallen sharply by the late 1990s and has remained low over the last decade.

Is it any wonder that ratings for network news programs are down, newspapers are struggling to retain subscribers and to stay in business, and Liberal networks like CNN and MSNBC are getting killed in the ratings by FOX News? 

News organizations largely ignored the discredited “Green Czar” Van Jones who, among many things, signed a 9-11 “Truther” petition and compared George W. Bush’s “oil addiction” to a crack addict.  And while there are a few organizations reporting the truth (these last few have been captured on video and cannot be denied) they get the usual refrain of being biased:

For its own part, ACORN naturally blamed someone else. In this case, FOX News, calling itself “their Willy Horton for 2009.” The ACORN state reads like a paranoid’s interpretation of the videos. Here’s Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer, for the group:

“The relentless attacks on ACORN’s members, its staff and the policies and positions we promote are unprecedented. An international entertainment conglomerate, disguising itself as a ‘news’ agency (FOX), has expended millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, in their attempt to destroy the largest community organization of Black, Latino, poor and working families in the country. It is not coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction. It is clear they’ve had these tapes for months.”

Not Surprisingly, according to Pew, views as to which media outlet is “biased” or not split sharply along party lines:

Democrats hold considerably more positive views than Republicans of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and the news operations of the broadcast networks, and their views of National Public Radio are somewhat more favorable than those of Republicans. By contrast, views of Fox News — and to a lesser extent The Wall Street Journal — are more positive among Republicans than Democrats.

For the complete results you may click here.

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