In a week where the MSM misses many of the big stories (an Obama adviser’s radical views, the growing grassroots opposition to big government), at a time when many media outlets downplay major scandals of the majority party, it should come as no surprise that
The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.
Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate.
It’s not just the changes wrought by the internet which account for declining newspaper circulation smaller audiences for network news. It’s also the bias practiced by the (once-)leading news outlets. Don Surber agrees that the changes are more than just new technologies:
My take is that people are better educated and older today than they were 24 years ago. The technology has changed. And the media is more partisan today, perhaps because there is more competition — and perhaps because objectivity is so darned hard.
People are better informed than they were a quarter-century ago and hence more skeptical of what they hear from the supposed non-partisan purveyors of information.
Barely one-quarter of Americans “say that news organizations are careful that their reporting is not politically biased.” Jennifer Rubin thinks it might helped if news organizations ‘fessed up: “Perhaps if mainstream news outlets owned up to their bias rather than hunker down in willful ignorance, there might be a chance to recover the public’s trust.”
And this is why blogs are becoming a better source of news. You know where we’re coming from. We bloggers don’t pretend we’re something we’re not. We here at GayPatriot make quite clear that we’re gay conservatives. It’s right there on our masthead.
Maybe the New York Times should change its motto to All that News that Liberals Find Fit to Print.
‘And this is why blogs are becoming a better source of news. ”
Huh? THat strikes me as a non sequitor.
How are you a source of news? Do you have reporters out there finding stuff out? Far as I can see, you are just commenters on the news, not sources of it. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Its obviously sensible to be skeptical of all news sources. But anyone who relies on the blogosphere for their news is outtatheir mind.
Um, we’re not the only blog; some bloggers do reporting or make public stuff buried in presidential (or congressional) statement, releases or statistics which MSM ignores.
We broke several stories which the American MSM missed, notably this one. We didn’t need reporters, just needed heed a contact who had read the story in the Dutch press and offered to do the translations for us.
“Who watches the watchers?” has become the question the media continues to ignore. Their attempts at policing themselves to give even the facade of objectivity have been a miserable failure. Oh and Tano, this is exactly the difference between the MSM and blogs: the former claims objectivity while the latter do not (most at least).
Bloggers have thousands of “reporters”. Look at the millions reporting in from the march on Washington DC. Pictures and everything. Just as non partisian and unbiased as any “educated reproter” in the state run media.
The recent blowing up of the ACORN myth is totally due to innovative conservative other media folks. The state run media is asleep and a very corrupt left wing revolutionary group is exposed. Simple hidden camera stuff. Thanks to the other media!