The Pew Research Centre has been evaluating public attitudes to press accuracy since 1985. Pubic perceptions of press accuracy are now at a 20-year low. You may be able to believe what you read, but most Americans don’t
Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate. That percentage had fallen sharply by the late 1990s and has remained low over the last decade.
Similarly, only about a quarter (26%) now say that news organizations are careful that their reporting is not politically biased, compared with 60% who say news organizations are politically biased. And the percentages saying that news organizations are independent of powerful people and organizations (20%) or are willing to admit their mistakes (21%) now also match all-time lows.
Read the full report here. Or wait for it to appear in the Daily Telegraph. Your call.
One Comment
Nowadays when the press make an error anyone with an interest in the subject can find out about it through other sources. Not to mention that people, especially those with political leanings, often email everyone they know about the error and what the real facts are (or even what some of the undisclosed facts are because lets be honest editors often cull stories for length and relevance).
Because this happens on all sides of politics, unless traditional media are able to be 100% accurate (which given at the end of the day they’re staffed by humans is unlikely) with al their reporting then confidence in them will continue to deteriorate. IMHO