Sunday, May 24, 2015

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SIMPLY DON’T TRUST THE MEDIA…


There’s an old saying that says, “What goes around, comes around.”  And then, there’s yet another, just as old, saying that might also be applicable when it comes to the behavior of those in our state-controlled media.  It says, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”  I will leave it to the reader to determine for themselves which might be the most fitting regarding the recent discovery made by a new Rasmussen survey about how the American people feel about their ‘news’ media.  You see, what was found out as a result of this survey is that 61 percent of Likely Voters in the United States now say they don’t trust the political news they’re getting.

In addition to the 61 percent, it was 59 percent who are of the opinion that coverage of the 2016 presidential race will be slanted, and it was 46 percent who said that ABC’s George ‘Stephy’ Stephanopoulos should be banned from any presidential campaign coverage because of donations he made to the Clinton Foundation.  The survey asked likely voters five questions ranging from whether they trusted the ‘news’ they were getting, to their opinions on whether reporters would try to help or hurt certain candidates.  It might be worth noting that the 61 percent of likely voters who do not trust the political ‘news’ they receive is a 16-point increase from the last survey taken just last October, when 45 percent of likely voters said the same thing.

It was also according to Rasmussen that 21 percent of likely voters say they still have confidence in the political coverage they get while 17 percent say they aren’t sure. The 21 percent who said they have confidence is down 12 points from the last time the survey was taken, when 33 percent said they were confident.  In addition to not trusting the political ‘news’, 48 percent of likely voters believe that media bias is a problem in politics.  According to Rasmussen, “Forty-eight percent of voters think media bias is a bigger problem in politics today than big campaign contributions, but nearly as many see campaign cash as the larger problem.  Majorities of voters across most demographic groups do not trust the political news they are getting.”

And not only do many voters think that media bias is a problem, but 37 percent also believe that the average reporter is more liberal than they are.  According to Rasmussen, “Thirty-seven percent of Americans believe the average media reporter is more liberal than they are.  Eighteen percent consider that reporter more conservative.”  The report goes on to state, “When it comes to the 2016 presidential campaign, only 23% believe most reporters will try to offer unbiased coverage.”  It adds, “Fifty-nine percent think that coverage will be slanted instead, with 36% who say most reporters will try to help Hillary Clinton during the campaign and 23% who say they will try to hurt her bid for the White House instead. Seventeen percent are not sure.”

The survey states, “Forty-two percent of voters who don’t trust the political news they 
are getting think most reporters will try to help Clinton; just 14% believe the media's coverage of the 2016 race will be unbiased.”  And it then says, “Among those who do trust political news coverage, 38% say most reporters will try to stay neutral, but nearly as many think they will try to help the Democratic frontrunner.”  While 46 percent said Stephanopoulos, who was a top adviser to ‘BJ’ Clinton, should be banned from covering any news on the 2016 presidential race, 34 percent said “they are less likely to believe the reporting on ABC News because Stephanopoulos failed to disclose the donations [he made] to the Clinton Foundation.”

But you know, if you bother to tune into any of the nightly network ‘news’ programs or nearly any of the cable ‘news’ programs, or choose to pickup a copy of nearly any issue of print ‘news’, it would seem that the purveyors of what passes as ‘news’ today are bothered very little by the fact that a majority of Americans simply no longer trust much of what it is that they have say.  And yet, far too many Americans simply can’t be bothered to do what’s necessary to get, and to keep, themselves informed despite the level of journalistic malpractice that has been painfully obvious since 2007, especially as it related to Barry.  It has become obvious we can no longer trust the state-controlled media to provide us with usable, and actionable, information.   

No comments:

Post a Comment