I’ve said before that one of the reasons the Blogosphere has become so popular is because the MSM overall is doing such a poor job. As it turns out, the data seems to support my contention. The LA Times today noted a recent Gallup Poll Survey which found that public trust in the media has fallen to all-time lows:

Those having a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers dipped from 30% to 28% in one year, the same total for television. The previous low for newspapers was 29% in 1994. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has declined from 37% to 28%, and TV from 36% to 28%, according to the poll.

So, where’s the spin? The LA Times staff went on to mention that “other institutions fared far worse this year.” For example:

Confidence in the presidency plunged from 52% to 44%, with Congress and the criminal-justice system also suffering 8% drops. Confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court fell from 46% to 41%.

This, of course, is dodging the issue, don’t you think? Telling us that the President, with a far higher approval rating than the MSM, has suffered a worse loss so far this year? Especially considering the fact that any President’s approval rating normally fluctuates in this manner, whereas, the MSM has seen a loooooong and steady decline for at least the past three decades!

Still don’t think the LA Times is spinning its heart out? Take a look at their closing paragragh:

Read another way, and stretching things a bit [emphasis mine], the numbers aren’t quite as bad for newspapers. Of those surveyed 24% say they had “very little” confidence in them, while 1% said “none.” By far the highest number, 46%, said “some confidence.” This means (looking on the somewhat brighter side) that 75% had some, quite a lot, or a great deal of confidence in newspapers.

This is exactly the kind of spin that has engendered such mistrust in the MSM in the first place! The editorial staff of the LA Times took the numbers provided by Gallup, repackaged them with some broad assumptions, and then tried to say something like, “we’re actually doing much better than you think.”

Of course, even a lowly pajama-wearing blogger such as myself knows this to be a bunch of bull. The fact is, the 46% who expressed “some” confidence might have been thinking of Fox News, or the WSJ, or National Review.

Lumping all those numbers together in an attempt to paint a rosy picture when the real story is that the long steady decline of trust in the MSM continues is just plain dishonest. And the thinking behind such a silly hypothesis seems like something a grade-schooler would concoct.

No offense meant to grade-schoolers, of course. At least most at the grade school level will grow and mature, and will one day leave that kind of thinking behind… What’s the plan for the ones who wrote this article?

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com