PUBLIC DISAPPROVAL FOR MEDIA COVERAGE: Of All Major Players in War, Only Media Fails to Score Well

Media Research Center ^ | November 15, 2001 | Brent Baker

[Mr. Mulliner]

The public approves of the performance of all of the major players in the war on terrorism, except one: the "news media." A Gallup poll released on Wednesday found 54 percent public disapproval for how the news media are "handling the war on terrorism since September 11," compared to 43 who approve.

That compares to 89 to 8 percent approval over disapproval for President Bush's performance. Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Postal Service earned 77 percent approval, as did Congress despite media angst over the fight over federalizing baggage screeners. A fourth of those polled have no opinion about Tom Ridge, but his 60 percent approval still means four times as many approve as disapprove.

    The MRC's Rich Noyes caught the poll result, which is not in the Gallup Organization's press release about the survey conducted November 8-11 of 493 adults nationwide, but it is listed on the PollingReport.com Web site.

    The question: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the following people are handling the war on terrorism since September 11th?"

    You can see the results in an orderly table at: http://www.pollingreport.com/terror.htm

    Here is my rendition, with the percentages for "approve," "disapprove" and "no opinion" listed in that order after each name
or entity:

	Approve	Disapprove	No opinion
George W. Bush	89	8	3
Secretary of State Colin Powell	87	6	7
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld	80	8	12
Attorney General John Ashcroft	77	10	13
Congress	77	16	7
The US Postal Service	77	19	4
Dick Cheney	75	11	14
The Centers for Disease Control	71	20	9
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge	60	14	26
The News Media	43	54	3

    For Gallup's rundown of the poll which posed this question: http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr011114.asp

    That summary does not mention the above question, but the accompanying RealPlayer video of Gallup's Frank Newport delivering an overview of the poll does cite the negative assessment of the news media. Newport attributed the disapproval for the media to over-coverage of anthrax and to how the media had been bringing bad news about the war effort in Afghanistan.

    I'd suggest it might have something to do with people wondering whether some in the media think they are above being Americans, an excessive focus on stressing the negative and questioning the actions of the players, of which the poll found, the public overwhelmingly approves.

    To watch the video of Newport, go to the above listed Gallup page. On the left you'll see a link to the video report.

 

[Mr. Mulliner]

Note how few people don't have an opinion on the media: just 3%. Considering how overwhelmingly positive all other major players were rated, this is an absolutely lousy, lousy report card for the media.

[Mr. Mulliner]

*Index for Citizens Coalition for Responsible Media

[Mr. Mulliner]

ping

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[rellimpank]

--as far as I am concerned, our Congressional buffoons rank right down there with the media. If anything constructive has emanated from Congress or as far as that goes the federal alphabet soup agencies it is pretty small potatoes.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Time for the govt to sue for the breakup of the AP virtual monopoly! Paging Thomas Pinhead Jackson...

[Diogenesis]

If the Sheeple knew the truth, it would drop to "0%".

[Mr. Mulliner]

Correctly interpreted, then, this poll is 0% approval for the news media!

[be-baw]

Thanks for the hit, SY. Too bad they didn't further explore attitudes about the media; specifically, I'd like to see why people have the (overall) negative attitudes they have.

Of course the probability of the media being concerned enough about this poll to change their ways is about .00015, give or take a dram.

[Greatgrandma]

I didn't like the newsmedia before this event. Now I despise and loathe them. Almost refuse to watch any of it.

I'm liking ESPN more and more all the time.

[Mr. Mulliner]

They may or may not take notice of this poll, but it's been an interesting month for those of us who keep an eye on the news media. First, CNN sets up policy to not overemphasize civilian casualties and to remind viewers why we are fighting the war in the first place. Then ABC News' president backtracks in a big hurry over his comments about whether the Pentagon is a legitimate target.

The media, as you well know, can be very frustrating to deal with, but little course corrections like these give me hope that they at least know that some people are keeping an eye on them and letting them know that we expect them to stick to a higher standard than they usually reach.

[peekaboo]

I could not agree with you more. This Congress is functioning at an all time low. We need an entire new Senate, and much of the House needs to go. What has happened to Education, Patient's Bill of Rights and the famous Energy Bill, to say nothing for the Economic Stimulus package. For once I would love to see Breaux and his centruist group take over and get the Economic package out of Daschle's hands. I am so sick and tired of Daschle with his having CONCERNS and his being TROUBLED, and nothing getting done. I was so proud of Cheney yesterday when he chastized Daschle for not getting the Stimulus package accomplished. Brent Bozell is right and on top of things as usual. Naturally, no one in the press will address their own performance.

[RooRoobird14]

Heh, heh, heh........I love it when these snotty fools in the press look bad.

These polls numbers must be KILLLING the PMSNBC/ABC/CBS/CNN/Carvile/McAuliffe crowd right now!! (Have some purple Koolaid, lefty whiners, it'll make you feel better--LOL)

[dakine]

That PTI show is horrible...

[yoe]

From the outset, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and just a tad, Fox's morning show have tried to sensationalize, editorialize and make the War Against Terrorism another Gulf War, with little news that is accurate, just for entertainment and ratings.

The print media have mostly done the same. You have to dig to find truth and that is found on the Net with excellent and accurate reporting.

America can no longer trust the non-cable news, most of it is slanted and spun for the enemy, not America. Few of the networks have reported about Bill Clinton's deplorable, drunken and un-American speech; you can find that on the net...in spades! A media that still holds the Clintons up on a pedestal, is either blind, deaf or stupid and in denial, or all of the above!

Pull the plug except for cable and Fox News!

The Bush people are doing a fantastic job!

[VOA]

bump

[Mr. Mulliner]

I fully agree with you about how hard it is to get at the truth. Just last week there was a quote by a NY Times photographer who said, "Don't trust anything you see on TV." He was talking about the war in Afghanistan where he's working and gave examples of how CNN and BBC exaggerated greatly the anti-American demonstrations. It was a serious slapdown from an insider, but I trust what he says as a photographer and not a talking head.

[Number_Cruncher]

If you listen to the reporters at the military press briefings, you would think these reporters are working for the Taliban. No wonder they are disliked.

[Mr. Mulliner]

And they're dumber than bricks. Rumsfeld has a great sense of humor, but I bet he's gotta be usinga all of his patience to not personally throw them out when they ask, "Have you considered dropping leaflets to let people know that they may be near a military bombing target?"

[Wright is right!]

"Newport attributed the disapproval for the media to over-coverage of anthrax ..."

Isn't THAT th' truth. The media, especially NBC, have been treating anthrax as if it's The Great Plague to end all mankind, when - in reality - it's been confined (if you discount the two isolated cases in FL) to Trenton, Manhattan and the DC area. Nowhere else in the country have there been confirmed anthrax sightings. What's worse is the media's dogged insistence on showing those barf-inducing microscope slides of the anthrax spores - particularly in the dinner hour. Is there one single viewer in America who doesn't know what the spores look like? I doubt it, but the media INSIST on showing the same damn slide over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Anthrax would have been a complete non-story had the media not over-hyped it so much.

Michael