The Mainstream Media Is at the Point of No Return

[BeatMan]

A recent landmark poll of 20,000 citizens undertaken by the Knight Foundation and Gallup found that Americans’ hope for and trust in an objective media is all but lost. They see not only an ever-growing partisanship in news reporting but a determination by the mainstream media to push a political agenda instead of honestly disseminating the news. While generic faith in the media has been gradually declining over recent decades, the precipitous drop in trust and questions about what motivates the mainstream media can be traced to June 2015 and Donald Trump’s entry into the presidential sweepstakes.

This latest Gallup poll is the most devastating indictment of the media in polling history. Some highlights:

84% of surveyed Americans lay either a moderate or a great deal of the blame for today’s partisan hostility at the feet of the media.
Further, 82% believe news outlets are either deliberately “misrepresenting the facts” or are “making them up entirely”.
This is further amplified as 79% of those surveyed say media outlets are trying to persuade people to adopt a certain opinion about an issue or an individual.
Similarly, while the respondents in the poll believe that the media is “critical” or “very important” to democracy, 86% say they have witnessed either a fair amount or a great deal of bias in news reporting. Damningly, 78% feel that this bias is reflected in the spread of fake news which “is a major” problem” that exceeds all other in the mainstream media environment. [emphases added]

By contrast, in 2007 62% of respondents in a Pew Research poll claimed to have witnessed either a fair amount or a great deal of bias in news reporting; in another Pew Research poll in 2012, that result increased slightly to 67% as compared to 86% today. How did the mainstream media sink to this abysmal level of distrust and disdain?



Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/art..._at_the_point_of_no_return.html#ixzz6UqTkwiOs
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[gmase]

Some media has always been biased (James Callender is a great example). Maybe there's more bias in the news or maybe there is more bias in people's perception of the news.

For example, the link you posted is quite biased. Did you even read the report as it is quite interesting? Here is a more balanced summary (directly from the publisher Knight - always follow the footnotes): https://knightfoundation.org/reports/american-views-2020-trust-media-and-democracy/

Just read the Executive Summary - it's short and has bullet points (my comments in [ ... ]):

• A majority of Americans (84%) say that, in general, the news media is critical (49%) or very important (35%) to democracy. [I could not find a reference to the 84% you quoted in the report.]
• Americans perceive inaccurate news to be intentional — either because the reporter is misrepresenting the facts (54%) or making them up entirely (28%).
  • Here was the question: Which one of the following concerns you most when you come across a news report you think might be inaccurate? [They are responding to other people's news.]
• Nearly 8 in 10 Americans (79%) say news organizations they distrust are trying to persuade people to adopt a certain viewpoint. [I bolded distrust because it significantly changes the the statement. Fox viewers say MSNBC is propaganda and MSNBC viewers say Fox is propaganda. We can agree there. Only 29% of respondents said their own news source was biased.]
• Nearly 8 in 10 Americans (78%) say “the spread of inaccurate information on the internet” is “a major problem,” an increase since 2017 (73%). Americans’ concerns around the spread of online misinformation eclipses their concerns related to various forms of media bias, inaccuracies or sensationalism, with 74% or fewer Americans saying these challenges represent “a major problem” with news coverage today.

I think AmericanThinker has an issue comprehending what was presented in the study. They assumed their readers would not actually read the source documents. I would hate to think they intentionally injected their own bias into their writing.

 

[Theopolis Q. Hossenffer]

We have a cable channel on U-Verse here that is as far as I can tell (and I watch it a lot) is about the most unbiased one since the BBC was taken away. It is called Newsy(News with the why) and really done a good job of nothing but the news. No moralizing, no proselytizing, no opinions. Just news and in depth programs. I suggest if it is available in your area to give it a try.

 

[Queen Bogs]

We have a cable channel on U-Verse here that is as far as I can tell (and I watch it a lot) is about the most unbiased one since the BBC was taken away. It is called Newsy(News with the why) and really done a good job of nothing but the news. No moralizing, no proselytizing, no opinions. Just news and in depth programs. I suggest if it is available in your area to give it a try.

Bubb, I noticed that about Newsy, too. When I first saw it, I thought it was made to appeal to millenials, with young anchors, informally dressed, standing in space usually, on stripped down looking sets, or even in front of something banal, like a cubicle jungle. The anchors are good (the parent company is Scripps), and the reporting is almost free of any perceptible bias. I think its winning formula is the return to the constant news loop, as Headline News used to do, so that you can set it and forget it as background in a business or something, knowing that they'll break in with anything new and worthy of it, adding it to the loop, if it's not a wall-to-wall, breaking event. It's not bad, but some of the anchors (by virtue of youth) are good with respect to the mechanics of anchoring, they just sound annoying (I hate young people, people should generally hate young people, it fuels them to get off their asses and prove themselves).

 

[gmase]

Bubb, I noticed that about Newsy, too. When I first saw it, I thought it was made to appeal to millenials, with young anchors, informally dressed, standing in space usually, on stripped down looking sets, or even in front of something banal, like a cubicle jungle. The anchors are good (the parent company is Scripps), and the reporting is almost free of any perceptible bias. I think its winning formula is the return to the constant news loop, as Headline News used to do, so that you can set it and forget it as background in a business or something, knowing that they'll break in with anything new and worthy of it, adding it to the loop, if it's not a wall-to-wall, breaking event. It's not bad, but some of the anchors (by virtue of youth) are good with respect to the mechanics of anchoring, they just sound annoying (I hate young people, people should generally hate young people, it fuels them to get off their asses and prove themselves).

Dolphin turned Queen? How many permutations are we going to have to watch out for?

We have a cable channel on U-Verse here that is as far as I can tell (and I watch it a lot) is about the most unbiased one since the BBC was taken away. It is called Newsy(News with the why) and really done a good job of nothing but the news. No moralizing, no proselytizing, no opinions. Just news and in depth programs. I suggest if it is available in your area to give it a try.

It was the channel of choice in the tower lobbies where our offices are located. I thought it was newsy as in 'like news', but you corrected my assumption. Avoiding cable news is a habit of mine. Local news a little, some online papers, WSJ, and NPR give me what I need.

 

[Queen Bogs]

Dolphin turned Queen? How many permutations are we going to have to watch out for?


It was the channel of choice in the tower lobbies where our offices are located. I thought it was newsy as in 'like news', but you corrected my assumption. Avoiding cable news is a habit of mine. Local news a little, some online papers, WSJ, and NPR give me what I need.

Excuse me?

 

[Bluejaye]

It's not just the media in the USA that's a joke.
We've had two referendums in Scotland, independence and stay/leave the EU (I refuse to use the "B" word). In both cases the media presented a skewed view of how things would proceed depending on the side of the vote they thought the status quo would be voting.
A college lecturer actually studied the bias during the Scottish Independence referendum and showed that the media had been biased in favour of one side.

In recent years they have become more about creating a story, using deliberately inflammatory language and rhetoric when letting everyone know what's happening.

 

[mikexmoran]

Bias is inherent. Cronkite was biased. Rather was more so. Before my time, but reading about Murrow and I think he was brilliant.

The fact check sites/services are biased, but what they investigate, include, exclude and sometimes how they present the facts.

I was just told by an colleague that OAN was the only unbiased source he knew of. I told him he was insane, but I know I'm biased.

The Internet and the change of how new sources create revenue have changed things for sure.

I think it is amusing that I enjoy the debates on politics and current events on a porn board more than in other circles. So, I'm either just a pervert or insane like my friend.

"If we weren't all crazy, we would be insane." Jimmy Buffet
"If we don't all go crazy once in a while, we'll all go crazy" Hawkeye Pierce

 

[gmase]

I think it is amusing that I enjoy the debates on politics and current events on a porn board more than in other circles. So, I'm either just a pervert or insane like my friend.

We're all perverted. I find it amusing some people join the porn board and head straight to the politics section. That is really something.

Or some who ONLY post to the politics section.

 

[Queen Bogs]

It's not just the media in the USA that's a joke.
We've had two referendums in Scotland, independence and stay/leave the EU (I refuse to use the "B" word). In both cases the media presented a skewed view of how things would proceed depending on the side of the vote they thought the status quo would be voting.
A college lecturer actually studied the bias during the Scottish Independence referendum and showed that the media had been biased in favour of one side.

In recent years they have become more about creating a story, using deliberately inflammatory language and rhetoric when letting everyone know what's happening.

You hit it on the head, it's the language. Even if it isn't deliberately inflammatory, it can be unintentionally not helpful. In the US, the terminology for illegal immigration was "illegal alien", and it's presently somewhere around "undocumented worker". Both are true, in many cases, if you want to hold them to that test, but using one or the other to start a conversation (and to keep it going) signals your inherent bias, and people take up defensive positions, not conducive to productively communicating, because of the underlying lack of trust. Ask Wittgenstein. It's all about the WORDS! 😁

 

[xfire]

Dolphin turned Queen? How many permutations are we going to have to watch out for?

Bogs Diamond is the leader of the prison rape gang from Shawshank Redemption, not a very subtle disguise for Fishy. 😂

 

[gmase]

Bogs Diamond is the leader of the prison rape gang from Shawshank Redemption, not a very subtle disguise for Fishy. 😂

I was waiting for the appropriate time to pull out a Capt Hadley reference.

 

[xfire]

I was waiting for the appropriate time to pull out a Capt Hadley reference.

Did you know that Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown) is the voice of Eugene Krabbs (Spongebob Squarepants) ?

 

[gmase]

Did you know that Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown) is the voice of Eugene Krabbs (Spongebob Squarepants) ?

I did not until earlier today. I was trying to figure out to work that one in as well, but hadn't figured it out yet.

 

[Theopolis Q. Hossenffer]

Dolphin turned Queen? How many permutations are we going to have to watch out for?


It was the channel of choice in the tower lobbies where our offices are located. I thought it was newsy as in 'like news', but you corrected my assumption. Avoiding cable news is a habit of mine. Local news a little, some online papers, WSJ, and NPR give me what I need.

I watch Newsy for national TV news, Read the Chicago Tribune for city and suburban news. We have a local county paper but as it is owned by the Trib it is mostly a rehash of the Trib's edition that day. The county paper was once a very good local and some national news when owned by Copley Press but then the Sun-Times bought it and that was that. Our city paper disappeared years ago. They tried to make it a freebie but even that did not work. Although I do admit to occasionally watching CNN and Fox for entertainment until I cannot stand it any more. Usually about an hour.

 

[Queen Bogs]

I watch Newsy for national TV news, Read the Chicago Tribune for city and suburban news. We have a local county paper but as it is owned by the Trib it is mostly a rehash of the Trib's edition that day. The county paper was once a very good local and some national news when owned by Copley Press but then the Sun-Times bought it and that was that. Our city paper disappeared years ago. They tried to make it a freebie but even that did not work. Although I do admit to occasionally watching CNN and Fox for entertainment until I cannot stand it any more. Usually about an hour.

Newspapers of the sort and on the scale of the newspapers of old are dead, as is the plurality of voices one could expect, when it came to reporting the news in print, and I think it's consistent with trend, i.e. the deregulation of cross-media ownership in the US that gave rise to the telecom/cable/broadcast giants we see in the US today. Fewer owners, fewer voices. Ironically, though, it's those same giants that were the saviors for not a few newspapers, buying them and helping them to digitize. One has to look hard for ones news today, and one has to be very discerning as to its source.

 

[Theopolis Q. Hossenffer]

The Trib does try to keep up the old standards but is fighting a loosing battle. Although that said large Newspaper organizations have been around for a long time.
Remember these guys?

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/yellow-journalism

 

[Queen Bogs]

The Trib does try to keep up the old standards but is fighting a loosing battle. Although that said large Newspaper organizations have been around for a long time.
Remember these guys?

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/yellow-journalism

Indeed. We think that today we have a press that's manipulated, weaponized even, by these guys or those guys ($, that's what steers the ship, at the end of the day, sadly), but factual coverage of current events (albeit, served w/editorial sometimes) hasn't ever been more available to the everyday, common person. Information overload, perhaps. Overtaxed modern minds are broken by too many heavy things, every day, abstract things, questions that may not even bear on their lives at the moment, imponderables. What I said about $? Mega media wants to give you what you want, so you give them what they want. In this modern age, it's my contention that an awful lot of us are asking for, with our news, what also to believe about it. Her Majesty cannot cast a stone on this, guilty before, no doubt.

 

[Theopolis Q. Hossenffer]

Ratings equals money today as newspaper sales did in the past. With the exceptions of Newsy who I have come to trust some, I take all the rest with a pound of salt. Look for what seems to make sense. 24 hour news cycle is the worst thing next to Social Media that has ever hit mankind intellectually. A species evolved to hunt and farm suddenly begins to find itself facing dramatic changes that have in 100 years completely changed the entire culture. Humans cannot keep up with the changes to do cling to things that appear safe and solid. Especially us old folks.

 

[Queen Bogs]

Ratings equals money today as newspaper sales did in the past. With the exceptions of Newsy who I have come to trust some, I take all the rest with a pound of salt. Look for what seems to make sense. 24 hour news cycle is the worst thing next to Social Media that has ever hit mankind intellectually. A species evolved to hunt and farm suddenly begins to find itself facing dramatic changes that have in 100 years completely changed the entire culture. Humans cannot keep up with the changes to do cling to things that appear safe and solid. Especially us old folks.

Alright, see, you went Kaczynski, you're picking up what I'm laying down. I'm thinking the same thing, F it, mountains here we come. Riding the storm out, and not missing a thing! 😄