More on the Facts

Yesterday I posted some thoughts in regard to the study the Pew Research Center published earlier this month regarding bias in the media. Interestingly, just yesterday, the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute released its third survey on "Trust and Satisfaction with the National News Media." Now admittedly, I know absolutely nothing about Sacred Heart University and the credibility of the polls it has conducted, but the statistics included in their study mirror those of the Pew Research Center.

There were, however, a few statistics unique to this survey that caught my eye. According to this survey, 90% of American believe the media helped get Barack Obama elected as president. Whether or not that is true is clearly subject to debate, but again, perception may speak louder than the facts.

But what appears to be especially damning for the media is that this research shows 45.9% of Americans have permanently stopped watching a news organization, print or electronic, because of the perceived bias. That's not to say that they've stopped watching the news altogether; rather, they may have simply switched sources. As I mentioned yesterday, news organizations will probably have no one to blame but themselves for their own demise.

The last statistic that jumped out at me is that Fox News is both the most trusted news source (30% of respondents) AND the least trusted (26.2%). Apparently you either love Fox or hate it. Unfortunately I cannot offer much in the way of commentary here because I subscribe only to basic cable and don't receive the 24 hour news channels like Fox, CNN, MSNBC or whatever, so I must really be missing out on the fireworks. Then again, with two young kids, I really don't have the time to sit and watch the news anymore. And in all honesty I find the Wiggles and Curious George much more entertaining.

As I said above, I have no idea how reliable Sacred Heart University is with their research, but if you want to read the study for yourself, here's the link to the press release about this survey: http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-23-2009/0005099743&EDATE=

p.s. On Saturday Sept 26 I came across this article on the demise of journalism, of all things written by a journalist: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/media