Fewer Americans Trust Mainstream Media
When Michael Goodwin, a 10-year veteran writer for the New York Times, saw the extent of the bias displayed by the Times in its coverage of the recent presidential electdon, and by the mainstream media in general, he called it “shameful”:
The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America.
The largest broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and ABC — and major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post have jettisoned all pretense of fair play. Their fierce determination to keep Trump out of the Oval Office has no precedent.
Goodwin spent 10 years writing for the Times, moving up the ladder from reporter to City Hall Bureau Chief before leaving to write elsewhere. He has a right to complain and to call out the elite media for its bias...
... For years Gallup has been asking Americans about their level of trust and confidence in the mass media “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly.” In September that “trust and confidence” dropped to the lowest level in Gallup polling history, with just 32 percent saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media.
On October 1 Martin Armstrong, another observer of the decline of media credibility, counted the number of newspapers across the country supporting one of the two major-party candidates. Of the 91 papers he found which had made an endorsement for either candidate, 87 of them endorsed Hillary Clinton while just four endorsed Donald Trump. Upon further investigation Armstrong uncovered substantial evidence indicating that there was collusion among the media, that it “willingly conspired to make Hillary president.”
What is ringing the death knell for the mainstream media isn’t just the declining lack of trust by Americans, but (in the case of the printed word) declining readership. Observed Armstrong: “The younger generation does not buy newspapers and magazines. Their end is near.”
Concluded Gallup:
The divisive presidential election this year may be corroding Americans' trust and confidence in the media, particularly among Republicans who may believe the "mainstream media" are too hyperfocused on every controversial statement or policy proposal from Trump while devoting far less attention to controversies surrounding the Clinton campaign...
Related
From the penalty box, Scott Johnson, PowerLine, December 3, 2016.
As he undertook his project of “fundamental transformation,” President Obama took office in 2009 with the side project of beating down FOX News. FOX News disrupted the coordination that the Obama administration otherwise had going with the mainstream media.
As White House communications director, Comrade Anita Dunn took charge of the project. FOX News CEO Roger Ailes stood in there, however, and by November 2009, Dunn was gone. Andrea Tantaros looked back in the column “Outfoxed.”
Comrade Anita herself explained in 2013 that undertaking the project made for “a simple decision, given the fact that Fox News had really been the not-so-loyal opposition since the President had taken office.” That was the spirit.
President Obama must be the smallest man ever to occupy the Oval Office. FOX News remains embedded under his very thin skin. The cable outlet has not fallen into line. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Obama attributed the disappointing (to him) 2016 election results to the supposed presence of “Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country.”...
In the clip below FNC’s Neal Cavuto responds to Obama’s complaint.