Americans' Confidence in Television News Drops to New Low

gallup ^ | 7 10 12 | by Lymari Morales

[InvisibleChurch]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' confidence in television news is at a new low by one percentage point, with 21% of adults expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in it. This marks a decline from 27% last year and from 46% when Gallup started tracking confidence in television news in 1993.

The findings are from Gallup's annual update on confidence in U.S. institutions, conducted June 7-10 this year. As such, the findings preceded the erroneous initial reports by cable-news networks CNN and Fox News regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's June 28 decision about the constitutionality of the U.S. healthcare law.

Among 16 U.S. institutions tested, television news ranks 11th, following newspapers in 10th place. The 25% of adults who express a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers is down slightly from 28% last year. Confidence in newspapers is now half of what it was at its peak of 51% in 1979.

[InvisibleChurch]

h i

[Gay State Conservative]

I haven't watched network news for 20 years.Rather? Couric? Jennings? Who are they????

[RatRipper]

I haven't watched network news for 20 years

Jennings?? . . . he's dead, Jim.

I believe you. LOL

[randog]

News orgs will see this and just say, “the people just don’t know what’s good for them” and continue with their SOP.

[justice14]

I watch Sports and Fox News (on occation). I get my news from the internet. I don’t need liberals telling me what to focus on each night.

[ZX12R]

For any intelligent person, this is a “well duh” moment.

[justice14]

Occasion*

[alloysteel]

Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” is one of the best ones out there. And he is just one notch above “Saturday Night Live”.

Almost everything else is opinion and not news.

[red-dawg]

[Darth Reardon]

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Gallup started tracking confidence in television news in 1993.

How about that. That is the year I decided to stop watching TV news and here's why..

Through 12 years of Reagan and Bush I watched Democrat members of Congress get regular spots on the TV news to bash the two Republican administrations. I thought that now there is a Democrat administration it will be the Republican members of Congress bashing Clinton..

no, didn't happen. Instead it was the same Democrat members of Congress but this time they were defending the administration against Republican criticism.

I have since stopped watching TV altogether going on 15 years.

[skeeter]

During republican administrations its the 'seriousness of the charges', during democrat ones its the credibility of its critics. Thats the way the news channels operate.

But maybe the viewers aren't as gullible as I (and they) thought.

[Hotlanta Mike]

[Buckeye McFrog]

...and a drop of 26,988% since the day Walter Cronkite ended the Vietnam War in 1968

[Smokin' Joe]

I recall the fecal typhoon of the Watergate era...The lies of Cronkite, the misrepresentation of what happened during Tet in '68, the swooning over hippies, and the reporting later about Waco--especially CNN's coverage of the hearings (5 minute rule) with 5 minutes Chucky Schumer's ranting followed by 5 minutes of commercials followed by 5 more minutes of ranting/posturing, effectively excising the Republican question periods with commercial breaks, and I'd had enough.

Good night, Chet.

When I can stomach 15-20 minutes of 'news' it is usually Fox, but the web and print are now my primary sources, and those are strictly caveat emptor.

[deoetdoctrinae]

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[Blogatron]

They clung to obama as he ran through the mud and covered every lie he told. Now, if they wanted to tell the truth about obama, they don’t have enough credibility left to do the job.

[Mikey_1962]

After 50 years of Soaps and Professional Wrestling did you expect less?

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Gallup is kinda late to the party. I stopped watching biased network news and print media in about 1977. Yuck!

Got tired even back then of the lefty crusades of the day.

[ntnychik]

What news? We have the entertainment updates, cute YouTube videos, ads for their website & blogs, the financial tip of the day, the health tip of the day, and today’s prevarications from the 0bama campaign. Most of the stuff we’ve known since last week. Oh, I left out the anchor quips, and the obligatory wind-whipped weather reporter hanging onto a pole.