A DANGER TO DEMOCRACY – AT 11:16 A.M. ET:  A free press is only valuable if it functions to high standards, serves as a watchdog over government, and has the confidence of the public.  The American press is failing, and the public is realizing it.  The result should not surprise us.  From Gallup: 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- 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% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year. 

Gallup began asking this question in 1972, and on a yearly basis since 1997. Over the history of the entire trend, Americans' trust and confidence hit its highest point in 1976, at 72%, in the wake of widely lauded examples of investigative journalism regarding Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. After staying in the low to mid-50s through the late 1990s and into the early years of the new century, Americans' trust in the media has fallen slowly and steadily. It has consistently been below a majority level since 2007.

Gee, you don't think it has to do with liberal bias, do you?

While it is clear Americans' trust in the media has been eroding over time, the election campaign may be the reason that it has fallen so sharply this year. 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. It is also possible that Republicans think less of the media as a result of Trump's sharp criticisms of the press. Republicans who say they have trust in the media has plummeted to 14% from 32% a year ago. This is easily the lowest confidence among Republicans in 20 years.

COMMENT:  The vote of no-confidence is well earned.  It's almost impossible to read The New York Times or to watch CNN during this election cycle.  Both organizations have some first-class reporters, but the slant is obvious to anyone watching or reading.  Why bother?

Will the media correct itself?  It's unlikely.  A biased organization tends to promote those who go along with the bias, and careerism rules journalism, as it does most fields.  One answer to bias thus far has been the internet, and I hope that continues.  Another answer has been the very fact that "media" is a news subject itself.  People are interested in what media does and how it works, and with that interest comes an ability to detect when something has gone wrong.

My guess is that some mainstream organizations won't even exist in ten years, victims of technological change and their own self-destructive tendencies.

September 15, 2016