Posted on 09/27/2004 8:05:42 AM PDT by FlyLow
New surveys have found that public perception of media credibility has fallen and that by two or three-to-one, more see major networks and newspapers as "biased to help Kerry" over Bush.
A Gallup poll "conducted after the CBS News report was questioned but before the network issued a formal apology," determined that "just 44 percent of Americans express confidence in the media's ability to report news stories accurately and fairly," a "significant drop" from 54 percent a year ago. In addition, "the poll found that 48 percent of Americans view the news media as 'too liberal,' while 15 percent viewed it as 'too conservative.'"
Meanwhile, a Rasmussen poll found that many more see ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC as biased in favor of Kerry over Rather with CBS "seen as the most biased -- 37 percent believe that network news team is trying to help the Kerry campaign" compared to just 10 percent who believe CBS is trying to help Bush. On the print side, Rasmussen discovered a public perception of a similar slant in the New York Times, USA Today and Washington Post with the New York Times "seen as the most biased -- 35 percent believe its coverage is biased to help Kerry" while a piddling 7 percent think it's biased in Bush's favor.
Those polled by Rasmussen saw only the Fox News Channel and Wall Street Journal as biased toward Bush.
In an insight into who the media most influence, Gallup discovered that "those with lower levels of education and income are more likely to have confidence in the media's accuracy and fairness."
An excerpt from a September 23 Gallup posting, "Media Credibility Reaches Lowest Point in Three Decades: CBS News incident latest in long history of media mistakes," by Mark Gillespie of the Gallup News Service:
As media analysts and journalists wring their hands over the fallout from CBS News' faulty reporting relative to President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, a new Gallup Poll finds the news media's credibility has declined significantly among the public. The Sept. 13-15 poll -- conducted after the CBS News report was questioned but before the network issued a formal apology -- found that just 44% of Americans express confidence in the media's ability to report news stories accurately and fairly (9% say "a great deal" and 35% "a fair amount"). This is a significant drop from one year ago, when 54% of Americans expressed a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the media. The latest result is particularly striking because this figure had previously been very stable -- fluctuating only between 51% and 55% from 1997-2003.
Conversely, 39% currently say they have "not very much" confidence in the media's accuracy and fairness, while 16% say they have "none at all."...
As one might expect, given the highly polarized nature of American politics, there are clear differences along ideological lines. However, despite the existence of the often-used term "liberal media", even liberals can be critical of the media's reliability. Just 48% of those who identified themselves as politically liberal expressed confidence in the media, compared with 38% of those who identify themselves as conservative. On the other hand, 52% of liberals expressed little or no confidence in the media, compared to 60% of conservatives.
Apparent distrust of the media is consistent among other demographic groups, with one exception: those with lower levels of education and income are more likely to have confidence in the media's accuracy and fairness than those with more education and higher incomes. As an example, 51% of those earning less than $20,000 annually express confidence in the media's accuracy and fairness, compared with 36% of those earning more than $75,000. Also, 51% of those with a high school diploma or less express confidence in the media, while just 40% of those who have attended college do.
The poll found that 48% of Americans view the news media as "too liberal", while 15% viewed it as "too conservative" and another 33% perceived the media as "just about right." Clearly, one would expect to find ideological differences on this question. Nearly three out of four conservatives (74%) say the media are too liberal, 6% too conservative, and 19% just about right. However, liberals may look at the large corporations that own many major media organizations and see a much different picture: just 11% say the media are too liberal, 37% say too conservative, and 49% say just about right.
END of Excerpt
For the summary in full with the polling methodology: http://www.gallup.com/poll/content/?ci=13132
-- Rasmussen poll released September 19: "Voters See All Networks with Bias." An excerpt:
....Between 33% and 39% of Americans believe that each of the five major broadcast news outlets is unbiased. On balance, four of the five are believed to be helping the Kerry campaign. One, Fox News, is believed to be helping the Bush campaign.
CBS is seen as the most biased -- 37% believe that network news team is trying to help the Kerry campaign. Only 33% believe it presents the news in an unbiased manner. This may be a reaction to the recent flap over memos aired by CBS -- 38% believe that Dan Rather used his broadcasts to help the Kerry campaign.
Bias is clearly in the eye of the beholder and there is a very strong partisan tint to all the data. Fifty-four percent (54%) of all Kerry voters believe that Fox News is trying to help elect Bush. At least 50% of Kerry voters believe that each of the other four news sources are unbiased.
At the other end of the spectrum, 60% of Bush voters believe Fox News is unbiased. Seventy percent (70%) of Bush voters believe that CBS is trying to help Kerry. Between 48% and 55% believe the same is true about CNN, ABC, and NBC.
Twenty-one percent (21%) of Kerry voters believe CNN is biased to help Bush. That may shock conservatives who used to routinely dismiss CNN as the "Clinton News Network."
At the same time, those who dismiss Fox as propaganda may be shocked that the other networks are viewed by voters in essentially the same light....
END of Excerpt
An accompanying table asked: "Is Presidential campaign coverage unbiased, biased to help Kerry, or biased to help Bush?"
For each network, the table listed the percentages for "No Bias," "Help Kerry" and "Help Bush." Since putting those as headers will never line up, here are just the three numbers for each network in that order (columns line up in 12 point Courier):
CBS: 33% 37% 10% ABC: 36% 30% 10% NBC: 39% 28% 11% CNN: 39% 25% 12% Fox: 38% 7% 34%
For Rusmussen's report in full: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Broadcast%20Bias.htm
-- Rasmussen's survey released on September 20, "Voters See Newspaper Bias." An excerpt
Forty percent (40%) of voters see the campaign coverage of their local newspapers as unbiased. However, only 20% to 29% view national papers as unbiased.
Among five different papers, the New York Times is seen as the most biased -- 35% believe its coverage is biased to help Kerry while only 22% believe it is unbiased. This may be a lingering response to the Jayson Blair scandals from last year. At that time, only 46% of Americans viewed the New York Times as a reliable source of information.
The Wall Street Journal is seen as the most balanced. Twenty-nine percent believe it is unbiased, 17% say it is biased to help Bush, and 13% believe it is biased to help Kerry. In addition to being seen as the most balanced, it is the only newspaper not seen as trying to help Kerry....
Twenty-four percent (24%) of voters believe that USA Today is biased to help Kerry. Only 9% believe it leans towards Bush. The numbers are virtually identical for the Washington Post (24% biased to help Kerry, 10% biased towards Bush)....
Partisan perceptions clearly play a role in this media evaluation. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of all Bush voters believe that the New York Times is biased to help Kerry. Among Kerry voters, 32% believe that the paper is unbiased. Not only that, 13% of Kerry voters believe the NY Times is biased to help their man while 12% believe it is biased towards Bush....
END of Excerpt
An accompanying table listed the numbers for: "Is Presidential campaign coverage unbiased, biased to help Kerry, or biased to help Bush?" As above, from left to right, "No Bias," "Help Kerry" or "Help Bush"
NY Times: 22% 35% 7% WSJournal: 29% 13% 17% USA Today: 24% 24% 9% Wash Post: 20% 24% 10%
See: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Newspaper%20Bias.htm
The MSM is biased? Say it ain't so.
So what? (they say)
We were able to pretend we weren't bias for so many decades - we managed to foist our agenda onto the nation. (they say)
All good things must come to an end! (They say)
So the less you trust the media, the more money you make.
so, what this is saying is that dumb people believe what the media is saying, and that the media is probably left leaning.
To quote Dylan, You don't need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows.
I'm surprised the Un-Biased numbers are this high. The pollsters must have asked if you are a Bush or Kerry supporter before they asked the questions. If you were a Bush supporter the pollster hung up.
The media is the enemy. Too much of it is obvious bias and propaganda.
I stated (at length in discussions) on a thread a some time ago that this is now not only a battle between the SwiftVets and the peaceniks of the 60s and 70s, but that this campaign has become a battle - a Great Battle - between the Old Media Fraudcasters and other mediots, and the New Media - with talk radio/ internet/ blogs.
This has become a battle to the death. Only one will be left standing. The 'Nam Vets (including me and many of my fellows in arms) are not going to be able to be silenced by the President or by the Demodogs or by the Fraudcasters. We know the truth. There is a great well of support we can draw on, and righteous anger about the way we have been treated. Many others are just as angry about how they have been misled by the Fraudcasters and the NYSlimes, et al, and they are now seeing a way to "get a bit of their own back. Most people have a story from personal experience of distortion of "news" by the media, and they now are realizing that they have a choice.
WE THE PEOPLE, INCLUDING THOSE OF US AT FR, HAVE TO TAKE BACK THE NEWS MEDIA. WE CAN NOT GIVE UP, WE CANNOT GIVE IN, WE CANNOT REST UNTIL sKERRY IS CRUSHED. WE MUST CONTINUE TO DESTROY THE MEDIOTS. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO ARE CONTRIBUTING TO THIS EFFORT.
Many of the people who in the past have been prisoners of the "major news media" are no longer. The internet has set them free. We are in the ascendency while they are on the decline. We will win.
"Twenty-one percent (21%) of Kerry voters believe CNN is biased to help Bush. That may shock conservatives who used to routinely dismiss CNN as the "Clinton News Network.""
Not shocking to me. It just confirms my perception that a significant fraction of the Democrat electorate is nuts.
"Gallup discovered that "those with lower levels of education and income are more likely to have confidence in the media's accuracy and fairness."
And the more you trust the MSM, the bigger nincompoop you are!
Pray for W and Our Troops
What it is really saying is if the Times, Usa Today, Post etc. are relying on dumb people to believe them, they had better teach them to read. But the problem will be that once they can read they won't believe them. It's all so complicated!
I have zero trust in the media. Thus, soon I will be infinitely wealthy (so I should be able to kick in a few more bucks for the quarterly Freepathons)
The NY Times took a poll of the journalists covering the Presidential campaign. Result: They favor Kerry by three to one overall and twelve to one if they’re stationed in Washington, DC. Does the bias show in their work?
An editor of Harper's magazine wrote a column denouncing the speeches at the Republican Convention. The column accidentally ran before the convention was even held.
The Associated Press reported that President Bush’s supporters booed when he offered wishes for a speedy recovery to former President Clinton. But people who were at the event said the booing never happened and network videotape proved them right. The AP quietly removed the distortion but never acknowledged that their reporters lied.
Now Dan Rather tells us the President didn’t fulfill his Air National Guard duty in 1973. His source turns out to be a rabid Bush-hater from the Army National Guard. The documents on which the story relied turn out to be forgeries. Then we hear the CBS producer involved coordinated with the Kerry campaign on the story.
The result: A September Gallup poll showed only 44% of Americans believe the media report accurately and fairly. They’ve earned our scorn.
And this is a dangerous situation for democracy. When the MSM becomes a propaganda tool, they endanger the country. I'm to the point where I think broadcast licenses ought to go up for review. Perhaps the threat of the loss of their license and the threat of change of ownership would keep them on their toes.
A focus on finding the truth rather than reporting both sides would be a good start.
Shalom.
If you support Bush, you will notice a pro-Kerry statement and decide it is evidence of bias. If you support Kerry, you will notice a pro-Bush statement and decide it is evidence of bias.
The 21% figure actually means that 21% of the time, CNN is forced to state something positive about Bush.
Shalom.
""Gallup discovered that "those with lower levels of education and income are more likely to have confidence in the media's accuracy and fairness."
The above is why the libs in most parts of America only win in the inner cities with their masses of under educated voters, the ones they didn't abort.
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