Their campaign against Fox News seems to have backfired.
Americans do not trust the major tv news operations in the country- except for Fox News.
Our newest survey looking at perceptions of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News finds Fox as the only one that more people say they trust than distrust. 49% say they trust it to 37% who do not.
More Republicans trust Fox News than Democrats, and Democrats trust NBC more than any other outlet. These results aren't surprising and probably reflect a bit of the "echo chamber" mentality of the hard core of both parties. The interesting question becomes what do the mushy middle think of our media?
And interestingly enough, more people trust Fox News precisely because they think it isn't neutral and objective. As the press release says, it tells you where the future of news is heading; that is, that people no longer expect media people to be "objective" and would rather the biases be honest and upfront. I've thought for a long time that it's better to admit your bias (a la Keith Olbermann) and let the grownups determine for themselves what news they accept and what they reject, rather than trying to fool The People that you are completely objective and have no hidden viewpoints. Anyone who worked for their high school newspaper knows reporters and editors have viewpoints and frequently use the power of the press to push it (think civil rights, environmental issues, Watergate). Regardless of whether you thought Valerie Plame was newsworthy, it's arguable that pursuit of that story till somebody got convicted amounted to advocacy, not objectivity.
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