-By Warner Todd Huston
A new poll on newspapers and television news shows that Americans’ confidence in the news industry continues to erode in this era of mass communications, reaching a low not seen since 2007.
The Gallup polling firm finds that trust in newspapers has fallen to 23 percent. This is down from 25 percent in 2012 and 28 percent in 2011.
The previous low was recorded in 2007 when trust in newspapers reached 22 percent.
Trust in newspapers has undergone steady erosion since its 1979 high of 51 percent, Gallup reports.
Television news fares no better in the estimation of those polled by Gallup. Trust in TV news tied that of newspapers with 23 percent saying they trust TV news sources. This is down from a 1993 high of 46 percent–when Gallup first began asking about it.
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Public Trust in Newspapers Falls to New Lows”
During the May 22 broadcast of National Public Radio’s “
National Public Radio recently aired a radio program focused on federal food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). NPR presented the assistance program as seemingly costless–in fact, said it was an economic boon to states–and also acted as both an advocate and salesman for SNAP.
Typical of when a Democrat is president, during a keynote monologue at the White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD), the President is spared from too many mean spirited barbs. In keeping with that tradition, TBS’ Conan O’Brien poked a lot of fun at Republicans and conservatives with a bit sharper stick than he used to poke Democrats.
The White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) has been a mainstay Washington to-do for years. Lately, however, it has come under fire for turning Hollywood–literally. In the wake of the event, some outlets continued the bashing but most lavished attention on the dinner or at least lauded it as harmless fun.
Juan Williams has had to admit that a recent column he wrote contained full sections of a report by the liberal Center for American Progress and that he failed to attribute the source.
NPR’s Ari Shapiro doesn’t stand for the national anthem and won’t recite the pledge of allegiance. Why? Because he places his position as a “journalist” above love of county. But, one wonders, does Shapiro understand that without this country he wouldn’t be free to be a journalist?
Journalists used to pride themselves on their independence. They once thought that hard questions were their stock and trade especially when it came to hurling those questions at politicians. But even as they congratulate each other for their efforts —
This may sound like a contradiction, but tax-supported National Public Radio is hiring more lobbyists to help get more tax dollars sent its way.
At around 130 days until Election Day, National Public Radio thought it would be nice to give the President a little boost by going back to its 2008 practice of assigning to Obama the god-like powers of The One, The Light Bringer, The Obammessiah.

I suppose we couldn’t get past the one-year anniversary of the crime against Democrat Representative Gabrielle Giffords without some Old Media outlet blaming the supposed “heated” political rhetoric of the day for her shooting. On Sunday we saw NPR doing just that. The fact is, no matter how many times they say it, politics and the “heated rhetoric” thereof had absolutely nothing at all to do with Giffords’ shooting. The linking of the crime to politics is just not legitimate.
Everyone is talking about the situation that commentator Juan Williams found himself in when National Public Radio fired him over comments he made on Fox News about Muslims. And whether you think Williams’s situation was properly handled or not, a second discussion has been raised in conjunction with it: the propriety of federal funding of NPR and PBS.
In a sign of these dismal times, the oldest family farm in America is up for sale because its owners just cannot survive this down economy. After 378 years of contiguous family ownership and operation, the Tuttle family of Dover, New Hampshire is selling its 134-acre farm.
On the day after his historic primary win,
National Public Radio has decided to change its labels for the two sides of the abortion issue. Unfortunately, its change skews the debate rhetorically in favor of the pro-abortion side by softening the fact that they are for abortion and by making of their position a “right.”