MEDIA VS. CONGRESS: WHICH IS TRUSTED LESS?

You certainly do not need me to tell you that media delight in reporting how low approval ratings for congress are.

The latest average among major polling organizations which ask about congress, puts it at 14.5%.  That ain’t good.

But here’s a little something they usually neglect to mention:  approval ratings for media – those nice folks cluck-clucking about congress – is even worse.

Here are the first two paragraphs of Carole Feldman and Emily Swanson’s April 16th article for the Associated Press:

Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans’ skepticism about what they read on social media.

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents

Fascinating.

Let’s think about this:  if you have a lot of confidence in someone or something’s information, you pretty much trust it will be accurate most of the time.  If you have less than that, you believe it is wrong a good deal of the time – maybe a lot, maybe even most of the time.

Well, if this poll is accurate, 94% of the public believes media are wrong a good deal of the time – maybe a lot, maybe even most of the time.

And can you possibly be surprised that Democrats are more likely to trust media than Republicans?  How often do we – and countless other blogs – talk about Democrat-leaning media bias in here?

I suggest you keep the above data in mind the next time you read about how low the public’s opinion of congress is.

And the next time a friend, relative or acquaintance mentions it, trot these data out…being sure to note that Democrats are more likely to be happy with them.

See what they say.  That should be fun.