Free Republic

The most trusted news source in the U.S. is The Economist — a weekly magazine published in the U.K., according to a recent survey from the University of Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute. The second-most reliable is public television, followed by Reuters and BBC. Two U.S. nonprofit outlets, NPR and PBS, came in at fifth and sixth, while the U.K.’s The Guardian clinched the seventh spot. The U.S.-based Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Dallas Morning News rounded out the top 10 trusted names in journalism.

The Internet has risen to its all-time high as a primary source of news for Americans with 43 percent now saying they get most of their news on national and international issues from the web, according to a survey published Thursday by the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press. Meanwhile, television sits at an all-time low as a primary source of news for Americans with only 66 percent now saying they get most of their national and international news from TV--a nadir television also hit in December 2010. Since 1991, Pew has periodically asked Americans: “How do...

Hopes for an effective law that would protect the public’s access to essential news from inside government have been dealt a severe setback by the Obama administration. As a senator, President Obama co-sponsored a robust proposal to protect journalists and their sources who rely on confidentiality to reveal abuses, scandals and other inner workings of government agencies. But, White House officials are now proposing deep revisions to a Senate Judiciary Committee bill that weaken protections against forcing reporters to reveal their sources. At the heart of the disagreement is the balance between national security and the public’s right to know.

The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news. Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%. For young people, however, the...

Is there a list of newspapers, magazines, media sources that we are only allowed to excerpt, or link to? Couldn't find a list on the home page. Is one available? Thanks.

Our friends at CBS News are at it again -- suggesting that blogs, bloggers, and everything related to non-mainstream media reporting is at the root cause of the troubles in the industry. Not the almost unconscionably poor job that the CBS News research division has been doing in vetting stories for accuracy, nor the obvious left-leaning bias of most of its broadcasters…but blogs. Haven’t these people heard the warnings from one of the organizations that they hold in such high esteem -- the Occupational Safety and Health Administration -- regarding the tossing of inanimate missiles from the confines of one’s...

Andy Rooney's Loosening Grip On Reality - Edward L. Daley Famed CBS commentator and leftist curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, has once again humiliated himself on national tv, and someone needs to tell him it's time to hang up his microphone and move to a nice retirement home in Kissimmee, Florida, or some other octogenarian haven. Now, I understand that the number of people these days who actually watch him and his chest-thumping, brow-beating, document-forging pals on '60 Minutes' is equal to the number of folks who believe that Elvis is still alive and living in a trailer park just outside of...

HELP, PLEASE. I have a friend on the South Island and I'm extremely eager to hear news of the 7.0 quake there. Have searched the web extensively and have a streaming NZ radio audio and still can't find much of anything beyond that there was one and no injuries yet reported. But the 7.0 quake is not that far from Queenstown near the South Wester tip of NZ. And, the depth is not very deep according to USGS. Seems to me there SHOULD be more news unless it's because of the night there and the relatively low population???? Any suggestions...

QUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEW townhall.comJohn Leo (back to story)May 6, 2002Mass media beware: the bloggersOne vote here in favor of the blogging revolution. Bloggers (from the words "Web log") write personal online diaries and commentaries. The best bloggers weigh in on social and political issues, report nuggets of information that the national media miss or suppress, and provide links to other bloggers with something sharp to say. Subjects that the mainstream press is skittish about (e.g., the link between abortion and breast cancer, or the mini-race riot that occurred...