WE WONDER WHY - AT 7:47 A.M. ET:  The American press, which tends to blame its current economic woes on the internet, got a dose of reality last night when the Pew Research Center released its latest report card on public confidence in the news media:

The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.

Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate. That percentage had fallen sharply by the late 1990s and has remained low over the last decade.

You may be sure that the reaction of the media to this finding will be to hold crisis meetings and pull out all stops to rid their organizations of bias and incompetence.

If you believe that last sentence you have serious problems, and we can recommend a list of political therapists.

More findings:

Similarly, only about a quarter (26%) now say that news organizations are careful that their reporting is not politically biased, compared with 60% who say news organizations are politically biased.

I found this fascinating:

And while just a third of Democrats (33%) say news organizations are “too critical of America,” that reflects a 10-point increase since 2007.

What?  Those are Democrats?  When the media starts to lose the Dems, you know the "journalists" are in trouble. 

And this is decisive:

The poll finds that television remains the dominant news source for the public, with 71% saying they get most of their national and international news from television. More than four-in-ten (42%) say they get most of their news on these subjects from the internet, compared with 33% who cite newspapers.

Yes, the internet is indeed "taking over," but it's taking over as Americans lose confidence in traditional media.  Newspapers aren't losing readers simply because of "technology," but because they're failing to deliver a product that people trust. 

I'd now love to see a survey on American attitudes toward Hollywood.  You remember Hollywood, don't you? 

September 14,  2009