Poll: Americans Continue to Distrust Pro-Abortion Mainstream Media Outlets
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 29, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Americans continue to distrust the mainstream media, whose reports on abortion and other pro-life issues continue the bias and misinformation that led to the creation of LifeNews.com more than seven years ago.
A Gallup poll found Americans, for the fourth straight year, have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. The 57% who now say this is a record high by one percentage point.
This year, 57 percent of Americans say they distrust the mainstream media compared with 43 percent who say they can trust the reports put out by prominent television and newspaper outlets. That’s up from a 55-45 percent split against trusting the media last year.
Since 1998, when Gallup first asked the question, distrust of the mainstream media has risen 11 percent while the percentage of Americans trusting media outlets has fallen 10 percent.
"The 43% of Americans who, in Gallup’s annual Governance poll, conducted Sept. 13-16, 2010, express a great deal or fair amount of trust ties the record low, and is far worse than three prior Gallup readings on this measure from the 1970s," the polling firm noted.
The reason Americans don’t trust the media is largely in part because they think it is too liberal in its reporting, which would include abortion and other pro-life concerns.
"Nearly half of Americans (48%) say the media are too liberal, tying the high end of the narrow 44% to 48% range recorded over the past decade. One-third say the media are just about right while 15% say they are too conservative," Gallup said.
Since 2002, Americans’ attitudes on the liberal bias in the media haven’t changed. Those saying the media is too liberal rose from 43 to 48 percent, those saying it is just right dropped from 40 to 33 percent. And, perhaps because of the enormous success of right-leaning Fox News or conservative and pro-life news on the Internet, Americans who say the media is too conservative rose from 11 to 15 percent today.
"Democrats and liberals remain far more likely than other political and ideological groups to trust the media and to perceive no bias," Gallup noted.
In fact, 76 percent of Republicans say the media is too liberal compared with 22 percent of Democrats and 45 percent of independents.
Ed Morrissey, of the popular conservative Hot Air blog, said the distrust of the media is the "new normal."
"In a way, this is somewhat similar to polling job approval for Congress. Low numbers are the New Normal, and we elect people to that institution. The media, on the other hand, gets plenty of well-deserved criticism for its bias and other failures, and it’s still approaching its apex," he said.
Morrissey observed: "Before late 2004, a majority of Americans had a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. After that point in late 2004, the dynamic flipped, with a majority since having little or no trust in the media’s ability to report fairly."
That was when CBS News attacked pro-life President George W. Bush with the phony Texas Air National Guard memos.
Morrissey says that provided "a clear basis for the always-present suspicion that the national news media occasionally cooked a story for their own political purposes."
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