Most Americans think press coverage is biased and negative, but say they respect journalists and trust what they read and hear.
A national survey conducted by the Missouri School of Journalism's Center for Advanced Social Research found that 62 percent consider journalism credible, and more than half rated newspapers and television news as trustworthy.
But 85 percent say they detect a bias in reporting. Of those, 48 percent identified the bias as liberal, 30 percent as conservative, 12 percent as both and 3 percent as "other."
About two-thirds say journalists invade people's privacy too often, and about three-quarters say the news is too negative.
"The consumers of American journalism respect, value and need it, but they're also skeptical about whether journalists really live up to the standards of accuracy, fairness and respect for others that we profess," says George Kennedy, a Missouri journalism professor and co-author of a study that incorporates the survey results. |