Page 23 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

Public Trust, Media, and the "War on Terror" 13

cans who are skeptical of media, and a significant figure who are generally sup-
portive of the status quo of reporting, although these numbers clearly vary de-
pending upon the poll one is examining. Aside from such issues, one is always
left with the problem of the vastly different wording of different polling ques-
tions, which may also result in substantively different results in terms of measur-
ing public trust or skepticism in media.
Public opinion of media may also be influenced by specific events in the
news, and how media outlets cover them. The Jason Blair (formerly of the New
York Times) and Jack Kelley (formerly of the USA Today) reporting scandals
(both journalists were found to be fabricating news stories), along with other
media scandals, may have helped incite higher levels of mistrust for media re-
porting. In sum, polling does not occur in a vacuum; responses are likely influ-
enced by the way media covers major news stories and developments of the day,
and by specific points in time when people are questioned-when media scan-
dals may or may not be a salient issue. Sometimes, the news itself becomes the
major focus of a story, as in the case of major reporting scandals.
A final possible explanation for such strong variance in indicators of public
trust in media may be explained in part by the theory that individuals polled
simultaneously hold both trustful and skeptical views of news media. While this
may seem paradoxical, it may be perfectly understandable or reasonable. Con-
sumers read newspapers and watch television broadcasts on a regular basis, and
use such reports to come up with their own understanding of how the world
works, independent at least in part from the reporting they view. It may be that,
in assessing the information available in the news, viewers and readers pick and
choose some parts of newscasts to accept or embrace, and others to question or
reject. In other words, one may believe that a paper like the Nav York Times, or
a network like CNIV are biased in one way or another, yet also accept some or
much of what those institutions report as reliable information about what is hap-
pening in the world.

Media in Comparison with Other Political Institutions

Despite strong levels of public skepticism, the news media has often been
viewed in a more positive light than many other high-level American political
institutions. This may very well be in part a result of the common expectation
amongst many Americans that the media serve as a critic of government cormp-
tion, exposing lies and deception, and keeping government institutions in check
by reporting important news stories and events which Americans expect to be
exposed in order to be informed citizens. Such trust of media stands in marked
contrast to the favorability ratings of various political entities revealed in the
same Pew Research Center poll, as the Democratic and Republican Parties re-
tained only 57 and 52 percent favorability respectively, Congress with 41 per-
cent favorability, and President Bush, whose approval rating in 2005 fell as low
as 35 percent, by some estimates.27 Even at some of the lowest points in public