Gallup's annual confidence survey shows 69% of Americans will not relieve themselves on a journalist in flames
The just-released results from Gallup’s Trust in Media Survey leave no doubt that members of my profession are officially America’s lowest life form. Gallup asked:
In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media — such as newspapers, T.V. and radio — when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately, and fairly — a great deal, a fair amount, not very much, or none at all?
- A great deal 8
- Fair amount 23
- Not very much 33
- None at all 36
It’s impossible to overstate this embarrassment. There are necrophiliacs who wouldn’t touch a congressional corpse. You may not hesitate to sacrifice a congressman in a lifeboat, but you think twice about eating him, even starving. Record fines for misconduct, and more informational access to behaviors like legal insider trading mean the elected officials Twain called America’s only “distinctly native criminal class” are hated more than ever. Yet expectations for journalists are now lower than those for Congress. Asked about trust in a politician, “None at all” is what people say when they expect nothing to get done. With media, it’s what you say if you don’t even trust a reporter to tell the time. It’s an extraordinary indictment.
The new horror show figures are driven by a 16% drop among Democrats over the last two years. That’s important because press watchdogs for years blew off low survey results, saying they were artificially weighted because “being ‘anti-media’ is part of [Republicans’] political identity,” as FiveThirtyEight once put it. That was back when most corporate media companies were proudly in the doling-shit-out business. Now they’re eating it.
