Public Confidence Falling

A recent Gallup poll shows public confidence in both the news media and in public officials plummeting:

Public trust in newspapers and television news continued to decline in Gallup's annual survey of "public confidence in major institutions" in the United States, reaching an all-time low this year. Those having a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers dipped from 30% to 28% in one year, the same total for television. The previous low for newspapers was 29% in 1994. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has declined from 37% to 28%, and TV from 36% to 28%, according to the poll.

However, some other institutions fared far worse this year, suggesting a broad level of cynicism or malaise. Confidence in the presidency plunged from 52% to 44%, with Congress and the criminal-justice system also suffering 8% drops. Confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court fell from 46% to 41%. The 22% confidence rating for Congress is its lowest in eight years, and self-identified Republicans have only a slightly more positive view of the institution than do Democrats.

The military topped the poll with a 74% confidence rating, with the police at 63% and organized religion at 53%. Big business and Congress (both at 22%) and HMOs (17%) brought up the rear.

Part of the reason for the drop, we suspect, is that since cynicism and skepticism convey an air of sophistication, many people who haven't read anything in a newspaper but the comics and sports pages in the last ten years will nevertheless answer a poll question about their confidence in the media with supercilious disdain. It makes them feel vaguely superior.

The same goes for political figures. It would be interesting to know how many of those who answered that they have little confidence in Congress, say, can even name their own senators.

Another part of the reason for the low esteem in which the fourth estate is held, of course, is that they deserve it. People who pay attention to the news are often dismayed at the tendentious reporting and blatant dishonesty of much of what they see and hear.

People want their news to be objective and they want editorial writers to be fair. With the rise of alternative media news consumers today are much more likely than their parents were to learn that they're being hoodwinked by the MSM, and consequently the media no longer enjoys the popularity or credibility that it once did.