Of Course We Don’t Trust The Media
September 17, 2016 at 4:36 a.m.
By Gary [email protected]
But at the same time, it was really troubling to me.
“Americans’ trust and confidence in the mass media ‘to report the news fully, accurately and fairly’ has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32 percent saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year,” according to Art Swift, a Gallup poll analyst.
Gallup has been asking that question since 1972.
“Over the history of the entire trend, Americans’ trust and confidence hit its highest point in 1976, at 72 percent, in the wake of widely lauded examples of investigative journalism regarding Vietnam and the Watergate scandal,” Swift said.
“Republicans who say they have trust in the media has plummeted to 14 percent from 32 percent a year ago. This is easily the lowest confidence among Republicans in 20 years,” according to Swift.
Fifty-one percent of Democrats and 30 percent of independents say they trust the media.
Swift thinks the current election cycle may be the reason that trust in the press has eroded so dramatically this year.
He said, “With many Republican leaders and conservative pundits saying Hillary Clinton has received overly positive media attention, while Donald Trump has been receiving unfair or negative attention, this may be the prime reason their relatively low trust in the media has evaporated even more.”
Sometimes I long for the good old days of three black-and-white channels and Walter Cronkite.
People trusted that guy – and rightly so.
Right after I read about the Gallup poll, I saw an interview on CNN. Wolf Blitzer was interviewing Gov. Mike Pence.
It went like this:
BLITZER: Let's get into this whole issue that Hillary Clinton raised the other night when she spoke about "the basket of deplorables." She said that half — in her initial statement, she said this, she said, "To be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables' – right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it." Afterwards, very quickly, within a day, she issued a statement saying she regretted saying half, it wasn't half. I spoke to her press secretary today, I said, "Well, what percentage," he wouldn't give me a percentage. But she said there are supporters — and you know this — there are some supporters of Donald Trump and Mike Pence who — David Duke, for example, some other white nationalists — who would fit into that category of deplorables. Right?
PENCE: As I've told you the last time I was on, I'm not really sure why the media keeps dropping David Duke's name. Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don't want his support and we don't want the support of people who think like him.
BLITZER: So you call him a deplorable. You would call him deplorable.
PENCE: No, I'm not in the name-calling business, Wolf. You know me better than that. What Hillary Clinton did Friday night was shocking. I mean, the millions of people who support Donald Trump around this country are not a basket of anything. They are Americans. And they deserve the respect of the Democrat nominee for president of the United States. For her to rattle off this litany of pejoratives was just really shocking.
I whirled around in my chair and told a co-worker:
“You watch the headlines tomorrow – Pence Fails To Call David Duke Deplorable,” I said.
Bingo.
Washington Post:
Mike Pence declines to say whether David Duke is 'deplorable’
Politico
Pence declines to call David Duke “deplorable”
USA Today
Pence refused to call David Duke “deplorable”
The New Yorker
Mike Pence and the meaning of “deplorable”
Never mind that Pence denounced Duke. Never mind that Pence refused to accept Duke’s support or the support of anyone who thinks like Duke.
Pence wasn’t about to use the word “deplorable” because he just spent the day criticizing Hillary for her “basket of deplorables” comment.
And you know that if Pence had said that Duke was deplorable he would have been labeled a hypocrite.
Then, of course, the headline would have been, “Pence uses ‘deplorable’ after criticizing Hillary for using it.”
If you read the stories under the headlines, the tone and “wink-wink-nod-nod” conclusion the reader is led to is that Mike Pence is a bigot and a racist – that he somehow supports David Duke and his ideology even though he clearly does not.
Weird how that racist thing never came up before with regard to Pence. I mean, he’s only been in the public eye since 1988 when he ran for Congress – and lost – to Mike Sharp.
Think what you will about Pence and his politics, but I really don’t think it’s fair to label him a racist.
Things like this Pence nonsense play out again and again – for the most part aimed at Republicans – and average people just don’t think it’s fair.
And I don’t blame them.
But at the same time, it was really troubling to me.
“Americans’ trust and confidence in the mass media ‘to report the news fully, accurately and fairly’ has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32 percent saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year,” according to Art Swift, a Gallup poll analyst.
Gallup has been asking that question since 1972.
“Over the history of the entire trend, Americans’ trust and confidence hit its highest point in 1976, at 72 percent, in the wake of widely lauded examples of investigative journalism regarding Vietnam and the Watergate scandal,” Swift said.
“Republicans who say they have trust in the media has plummeted to 14 percent from 32 percent a year ago. This is easily the lowest confidence among Republicans in 20 years,” according to Swift.
Fifty-one percent of Democrats and 30 percent of independents say they trust the media.
Swift thinks the current election cycle may be the reason that trust in the press has eroded so dramatically this year.
He said, “With many Republican leaders and conservative pundits saying Hillary Clinton has received overly positive media attention, while Donald Trump has been receiving unfair or negative attention, this may be the prime reason their relatively low trust in the media has evaporated even more.”
Sometimes I long for the good old days of three black-and-white channels and Walter Cronkite.
People trusted that guy – and rightly so.
Right after I read about the Gallup poll, I saw an interview on CNN. Wolf Blitzer was interviewing Gov. Mike Pence.
It went like this:
BLITZER: Let's get into this whole issue that Hillary Clinton raised the other night when she spoke about "the basket of deplorables." She said that half — in her initial statement, she said this, she said, "To be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables' – right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it." Afterwards, very quickly, within a day, she issued a statement saying she regretted saying half, it wasn't half. I spoke to her press secretary today, I said, "Well, what percentage," he wouldn't give me a percentage. But she said there are supporters — and you know this — there are some supporters of Donald Trump and Mike Pence who — David Duke, for example, some other white nationalists — who would fit into that category of deplorables. Right?
PENCE: As I've told you the last time I was on, I'm not really sure why the media keeps dropping David Duke's name. Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don't want his support and we don't want the support of people who think like him.
BLITZER: So you call him a deplorable. You would call him deplorable.
PENCE: No, I'm not in the name-calling business, Wolf. You know me better than that. What Hillary Clinton did Friday night was shocking. I mean, the millions of people who support Donald Trump around this country are not a basket of anything. They are Americans. And they deserve the respect of the Democrat nominee for president of the United States. For her to rattle off this litany of pejoratives was just really shocking.
I whirled around in my chair and told a co-worker:
“You watch the headlines tomorrow – Pence Fails To Call David Duke Deplorable,” I said.
Bingo.
Washington Post:
Mike Pence declines to say whether David Duke is 'deplorable’
Politico
Pence declines to call David Duke “deplorable”
USA Today
Pence refused to call David Duke “deplorable”
The New Yorker
Mike Pence and the meaning of “deplorable”
Never mind that Pence denounced Duke. Never mind that Pence refused to accept Duke’s support or the support of anyone who thinks like Duke.
Pence wasn’t about to use the word “deplorable” because he just spent the day criticizing Hillary for her “basket of deplorables” comment.
And you know that if Pence had said that Duke was deplorable he would have been labeled a hypocrite.
Then, of course, the headline would have been, “Pence uses ‘deplorable’ after criticizing Hillary for using it.”
If you read the stories under the headlines, the tone and “wink-wink-nod-nod” conclusion the reader is led to is that Mike Pence is a bigot and a racist – that he somehow supports David Duke and his ideology even though he clearly does not.
Weird how that racist thing never came up before with regard to Pence. I mean, he’s only been in the public eye since 1988 when he ran for Congress – and lost – to Mike Sharp.
Think what you will about Pence and his politics, but I really don’t think it’s fair to label him a racist.
Things like this Pence nonsense play out again and again – for the most part aimed at Republicans – and average people just don’t think it’s fair.
And I don’t blame them.
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