Posted on 02/05/2010 1:28:27 PM PST by Maelstorm
Last week, news stories proclaimed that Fox News Channel was the most trusted television news source in the country.
The stories were referring to a poll done by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, which asked Americans whether they trusted each of the country's major television news operations. The only one with a positive review was Fox News. CNN did next best, followed by NBC News, then CBS News, and finally ABC News.
But if you take a closer look at the numbers, the exact opposite is true.
PPP's poll, taken in mid-January, found that 49 percent of Americans say they trust Fox News, while 37 percent say they don't. Predictably, however, there is a large party split on this perception.
When conservative voters were asked questions on the issue of trust and American media outlets, the split for Fox News was 75 percent of respondents saying it was trusted to only 13 percent saying the opposite. The trust numbers completely flop around for the three major networks -- 16 percent to 67 for ABC, 15 percent to 66 for NBC and 14 percent to 68 for CBS. CNN fared a little better at 22 percent to 60.
Among liberal voters, the numbers were, as you'd expect, totally reversed. NBC came in first with 64 percent trusted against 22 percent not trusted. CNN was second at 63 percent to 21, followed by CBS at 56 percent to 29 and ABC at 50 percent to 31. Dead last was Fox News at 26 percent to 66 percent.
So, it's no surprise that conservatives have a near-universal faith in the infallibility of Fox News, while liberals do not. But how about those who call themselves moderates, the people who are supposed to be the swing voters in the November election? If you look at the numbers, they are about as skeptical as liberals regarding Fox News. CNN was the moderates' top choice with 47 percent saying it was trusted against 31 percent not trusted. NBC and CBS had trust figures of 44 and 41, respectively, against 33 not trusted. ABC saw a 39 to 34 split and Fox News was last with a 33 to 48 split.
And here's the kicker regarding these numbers. Liberals made up 14 percent of the PPP poll, while moderates made up 47 percent. And both groups said Fox News is the least trusted name in news, and said so by a decisive margin. While liberals and moderates say they have no one single television news source that they watch faithfully, conservatives say they trust Fox News, period.
This explains a lot about where journalism, and where our nation is headed. It also explains the results of another poll, commissioned by the liberal Web site DailyKos.com and done by Research 2000. They asked 2,003 self-described Republicans some questions about what they believe. The results were startling.
Sixty-three percent said they thought President Obama was a socialist. Forty-two percent said they don't believe Obama was born in the United States. Fifty-three percent said Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Obama. And 39 percent said Obama is racist and hates white people. The same number said Obama should be impeached.
Ninety-one percent support the death penalty. Seventy-seven percent oppose gay marriage. That same number believes public school students should be taught that the Book of Genesis explains how the world was created. Forty-eight percent equate contraception with abortion, something that 76 percent believe is murder. And 67 percent believes that anyone who is not a Christian is going to Hell.
Nate Silver, the expert parser of polls and proprietor of fivethirtyeight.com, said the most surprising about the DailyKos/Research 2000 poll was not its answers but its uniformity. Silver found there were few variations in the percentages, even when looking at the ages or regions of the respondents.
"This accounts for what might be the Republicans' greatest strength as we head into the November midterms," said Silver. "They can somewhat comfortably adopt a nationalized, one-size-fits-all message."
And how did the GOP get a base that thinks pretty much the same whether they live in the Northeast, the Middle West or the South? Because most of them watch Fox News, and have absorbed a narrative that attacks Obama, the Democratic Party and liberalism in general at every opportunity. When you have sizable numbers of Americans who think like this, our nation becomes a lot harder to govern and a middle ground is nearly impossible to reach.
“When you have sizable numbers of Americans who think like this, our nation becomes a lot harder to govern and a middle ground is nearly impossible to reach.”
translation: we are getting pissed becuase we cannt con everyone anymore...
Sounds like the same statitician who devised Obama’s unemployment model.
What is. Is not.
Presto.
I thought that quote was telling. Aren’t we all tired of that kind of thinking? They talk like they are managing a bunch of preschoolers instead of citizens.
Who said anything about "infallibility"?
Two things worth noting here.
First, when you combine the viewership of the liberal networks and compare them to the one that is not liberal (Fox) the liberals still have much larger numbers of viewers than Fox.
Second, the liberals had a good thing going before Fox — they posed as unbiased, objective purveyors of the news, but in fact the news was selected and reported with a strong liberal slant for decades.
IMO it was the overreaching after the election of Clinton that really exposed them. It was clear that the “objective” news organizations were not scrutinizing Clinton anywhere near the extent to which they did Reagan and Bush the elder. While the bias became clear to many of us during the Vietnam War, it was only during the early years of the Clinton administration that it became undeniable, at least to most conservatives and moderates.
That gave an opening to FoxNews, and now pretty much everyone understands that there is a lot of room for judgment in the selection of which news to report, what aspects to emphasize, and what stories to devote resources to. The best one can hope for is that a news organization tries to at least be fair and brings on the air or on its pages a balance of viewpoints. The liberal news organizations still fail even in this.
So he doesn’t like the PPP methods because of the percieved bias, but then he turns around and touts a daily KOS poll?
Bitter clinger!
If that's true, then it's a problem for the pollsters, because that means that 39 percent were conservatives, vs. 14% liberals.
Liberals have “willful collective amnesia”
Becuase I sure remember when the head of CNN had to admit that CNN spiked news out of Iraq for over a decade...
But only admitted because we invaded and exposed mass graves, rape rooms, childrens prisons and torture chambers...
rotten scum the lot of them...useless parasites informing no one...only spinning...agenda is all...
Report Card: Brattelboro Reformer
Reporting: C
Math Analysis: F
Whining: A
Conduct: Churlish and immature. Could use more work at home.
If FOX actually WERE a conservative network, it would be three times as popular and a hell of a lot more trustworthy.
[...] the most surprising about the DailyKos/Research 2000 poll was not its answers but its uniformity. Silver found there were few variations in the percentages, even when looking at the ages or regions of the respondents.
[...] And how did the GOP get a base that thinks pretty much the same whether they live in the Northeast, the Middle West or the South? Because most of them watch Fox News
So Fox News devotes a lot of time to Genesis and Hell?
Actually, 48% answered NO to the question, "Do you believe the birth control PILL is abortion?" (http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/1/31/US/437) Seems Mr. Reformer is a product of the publik skoolz.
Just for the Libs sake; have a ‘Fox Nation’ bumper sticker. . .
>>When you have sizable numbers of Americans who think like this, our nation becomes a lot harder to govern and a middle ground is nearly impossible to reach.<<
Actually, it would be quite easy to reach if they’d ever try to find “middle ground” between the middle and the conservatives. Instead, they’re always trying to find it to the left of the middle. Why not try the side where the bulk of the partisans reside (the right) and see if some real “middle ground” can be reached, e.g., tort reform, getting spending under control, sensible gun laws that are aimed at criminals instead of normal citizens, court appointees that respect the constitution instead of wanting to rewrite it, etc.
The bulk of Conservatives don’t want to write religion into law. They just want lawmakers to quit trying to drive religion out of public life. They’ll let New Yorkers and Californians permit abortion if that’s what their voters, lawmakers, and courts decide upon, but don’t want New Yorkers and Californians setting abortion law in Ohio or Illinois.
There’s a whole lot of room for compromise if lawmakers ever decide to try to find it to the right of center, because that’s where the balancing point is located. It’s a relatively conservative-to-moderate country, not a relatively liberal-to-moderate country, though you’d never know it by looking at the makeup of Congress today. But that will change in November.
The author takes the highest approval rate AMONG ALL AMERICANS and manages to turn it into a negative, and a negative approval rate AMONG ALL AMERICANS for all the other “news” agencies and turns it into a positive. Where do they find these people?
You make a good point. The left has never been a majority interest. The Democrats have a huge problem because independents are not just identifying themselves as Republicans they are instead identifying themselves increasingly as conservatives first. The middle is shifting to the first principles cause and the tea partys are doing what Perot and other third party interests failed. They are uniting the center right independents against the left.
“When you have sizable numbers of Americans who think like this, our nation becomes a lot harder to govern and a middle ground is nearly impossible to reach.”
This reminds of the NY Times, WAPO, ABC, NBC, CBS and their utter hegemony over political news and ideology. Now the shoe is on the other foot and they despise it. The left no longer controls how the news is dispensed, their flaccid organs no longer color it and propagandize it. They are furious, and I am howling at the irony.
They really are afraid. They have forgotten that this is America.
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