MADNESS HAS ITS CONSEQUENCES – AT 8:06 A.M. ET:   The American people are delivering their verdicts on news organizations.  Oh joy.  From Powerline:

MSNBC has once again apologized abjectly and, this time, fired an employee for a bigoted tweet that the network’s president described as “offensive and wrong.” I wrote about the episode last night.

MSNBC’s string of debacles has taken a toll. Public Policy Polling finds that MSNBC is now America’s least trusted news source, tied with its parent NBC and–wait for it!–Comedy Central. PPP asked respondents which network they trust the most. The results:

Fox News: 35%
PBS: 14%
ABC News: 11%
CNN: 9%
CBS News: 6%
NBC News: 3%
Comedy Central: 3%
MSNBC: 3%

That’s a runaway for Fox, actually.

COMMENT:  The topping on this cake is that PPP is a liberal polling organization.  The findings must pain them.

I am simply amazed at how little attention some news outlets pay to their own credibility.  Is it arrogance?  Ignorance?  Or don't they realize how much credibility they've lost?  I think the last possibility is particularly important.  Many modern, "educated" journalists live in a very narrow universe in which their views are mainstream, and those to the right are considered "fringe" or even fascistic.  This is a function of their education and culture.  It is also a function of where major news organizations have their headquarters. 

We learned this week that Obama has an 81% approval rating in the District of Columbia.  It's a bubble, and many "journalists" live there.  Happily.

January 31, 2014