Your Most Trusted Source (?): Fox News
It has come to this. It used to be that Americans turned to the three network anchors for their news and information. Walter Cronkite was regarded not only as the most trusted anchor but also as the most trusted man in America. Cronkite earned that lofty distinction because Americans believed that when he spoke, he presented the truth unvarnished by his own views. As President Obama noted so eloquently upon Cronkite’s death: “He was someone we could trust to guide us through the most important issues of the day; a voice of certainty in an uncertain world. He was family. He invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down.” If a recent Public Policy Poll is correct, Cronkite and his successors at the networks have been replaced by the likes of Brit Hume, Chris Wallace, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Greta Van Susteren as America’s most trusted news sources. Fox News Channel was the only one of the five top news organizations to be rated more positively than negatively with 49 percent saying they trust it to 37 percent who do not. CNN ranked second with 39 percent who trusted it and 41 percent who distrusted it. I want to say upfront that this isn’t meant to be a diatribe against Fox News (okay, in part it is). I would also protest if Keith Olbermann and the gang from MSNBC were rated as the top network because both networks present partisan views more than balanced news. But the Public Policy Poll results mark a change from as recent as this fall when Pew Research found that more people had a favorable image of CNN than Fox (60-55 percent). How did this happen?
For conservatives such as Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, the results simply confirm the obvious: Fox presents the news in a more fair and balanced manner than CNN and the three broadcast networks. “The proof is in the pudding. Americans want balanced news, not liberal advocacy. Fox offered them ‘fair and balanced’ journalism, and America has embraced them…. Liberal politicians and liberal journalists who regularly bash Fox News need to realize it is THEY who are completely out of touch with the American people. The bottom line is that Americans now trust Fox far more than any other network. Liberal bias has come back to bite the networks where it hurts.” However, the claims that Fox News is the fair and balanced network ring hollow when one actually looks at their coverage. A recent George Mason University study showed that the three networks and the national newspapers were almost perfectly balanced in their coverage of President Obama’s first year, with 49% positive and 51 percent negative (with the New York Times being the most positive at 54 percent), However, only 22 percent of Obama’s coverage on Fox News “Special Report” was positive.
Rather, I think the analysis of the Public Policy President Dean Debnam identified the real reason for Fox’s ascendancy: “A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news, But the media landscape has really changed, and now they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.”
Indeed, as I have noted before on this blog, studies are showing that in the online age where people increasingly have control over where to get news and information, more and more individuals are practicing selective exposure and seeking out sources that reinforce their views rather than searching for more balanced sources of information. Selective exposure is stronger among more partisan sources such as blogs and political websites than those that strive to be more balanced such as newspapers. The Public Policy Poll showed clear evidence of selective exposure. Nearly three quarters of Republicans (74 percent) said they trust Fox News and no more than 23 percent of Republicans said they trusted broadcast news or CNN. On the other hand, only 30 percent of Democrats put faith in Fox and a majority trusted the three major networks and CNN.
Selective exposure is not necessarily bad. Those who are the most likely to practice selective exposure are those who are politically interested and knowledgeable. They pay considerable attention to the news and do not necessarily need to read the “other side” because they know where they stand. On the other hand, selective exposure may lead to a more polarized public, making it more difficult for politicians to reach consensus on issues as we have seen in this year’s Congressional gridlock. Democracy depends on an informed electorate and how informed can an electorate be if they only attend to sources that present one perspective and that spread misinformation? For instance, a Pew Reseach survey earlier this year revealed that only 55 percent of Democrats correctly identified President Obama as a Christian despite extensive coverage of his faith.
Public Policy Polling director Tom Jensen summarized the findings of his survey nicely when he noted, “A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality. It says a lot about where journalism is headed.”
I would like to hear what you think. Does Fox deserve the public’s designation as the most trusted news source? Do you agree with Jensen that these poll results suggest that increasingly people will seek out more partisan content and there will be more sources to provide it?