It’s often called the “lame-stream” media for a reason. Liberals and conservatives the country-over can finally agree on something: TV news sucks.
A new Gallup poll shows that American confidence in the televised news media is at an all-time low, according to the Huffington Post. Gallup does an annual poll regarding how much faith the American people put in their biggest institutions, and was careful to note that their poll regarding confidence in televised news was answered before Fox and CNN famously screwed up reports regarding the SCOTUS decision on the Affordable Care Act. That just goes to show what little confidence there is to go around.
The data: 21% of adults said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in TV news, down 25% since 1993 when Gallup began this particular poll. Judging on the political spectrum yielded some interesting results as well: Democrats were more likely than Republicans to trust what the TV says (34% and 17% respectively) but self-identified liberals were overall the least-happy with television news – only 19% said they were confident in the medium.
CNN will arguably be the worst-for-wear in light of the poll, suggests TPM. The network is facing its worst ratings in two decades, and had a harder time bouncing-back from the SCOTUS/ACA bumble than rival Fox News (who still sit at the top in televised news ratings).
So why is confidence so low?
Gallup says it wasn’t so sure, merely stating that “Americans’ negativity likely reflects the continuation of a broader trend that appeared to enjoy only a brief respite last year. Americans have grown more negative about the media in recent years, as they have about many other U.S. institutions and the direction of the country in general,” in its analysis.
But I prefer Brent Bozell’s explanation: “The answer is simple: the networks refuse to Tell the Truth, and the American people are sick and tired of it.”