CBS News’ Public Eye blog has a post with some interesting results from a poll conducted by CBS News and the New York Times. The detailed poll information is here. The lead from the story about the poll:
A majority of Americans have at least a fair amount of trust and
confidence in the news media, although relatively few express a great
deal of confidence in the institution, a CBS News/New York
Times poll has found. Still, most think the stories the news media
report are generally accurate, and that the news media generally tell
the truth (something many think the administration does not do).
And here are the interesting tidbits from the Public Eye blog:
In introducing correspondent Anthony Mason’s package on the media,
anchor Bob Schieffer mentioned some of the findings of the poll, namely
that 63% of respondents had “at least some confidence” in the stories
reported by the press while 69% generally believe stories to be
accurate. That’s a pretty high number, but maybe I’m just jaded from
reading all the criticism the media has gotten lately. Here are some
other findings of that poll
- The numbers of respondents who said they felt stories reported by the
media are accurate match exactly results from a 1994 CBS News poll. In
both cases, 69% said they believed the media was generally accurate
while 22% said inaccurate.- When asked, in general, how often the media tells the truth, 59% said
all or most of the time while 40% said some of the time or hardly ever.
When the same question was asked about members the Bush Administration,
39% said they tell the truth all or most of the time while 58% said
they told the truth some of the time or hardly ever.
- Asked to compare the media’s treatment of President Bush compared to
past presidents, 35% said they thought the press has been harder on the
current president, 18% said the media has been easier in its coverage
and 45% said he’s been treated about the same as others.
