Trustworthiness of News Sources

1. 86

   My Esotericposted 9 years ago

   Recently Pew Research
   http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are … ca-2014-10
   
   released a poll ranking the trustworthiness of various News Outlets.  They showed what Very Liberal, Somewhat Liberal, Mixed, Somewhat Conservative, and Very Conservative ideologies.  They had their own methodology for ranking them "trusted more then distrusted, "trusted as much as distrusted", and "trusted less than distrusted".
   
   Pew's top 5 trusted sources were 1) The Economist, 2) BBC, 3) NPR, 4) PBS, and 5) Wall Street Journal
   Their worst 5 distrusted sources 1) Buzz Feed, 2) Rush Limbaugh, 3) Glenn Beck, 4) Ed Shultz, 5) Al Jazeera America
   
   I reranked their results based on what made sense to me (some their rankings seemed very odd and inconsistent with each other) and came up with this:
   
   Best 5: 1) Wall Street Journal, 2) The Economist, 3) BBC, 4) Google News (?), 5) ABC/USA Today (tied)
   Worst 5: 1) 1) Buzz Feed, 2) Rush Limbaugh, 3) Ed Schultz, 4) Al Jazeera America, 5) Daily Kos.
   
   What is your opinion?

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   1. 86

      My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      More information about this:
      
      - My scale is from 9 (Buzz Feed) to 81 (Wall Street Journal)
      - The next three most trusted sources scored 77
      - The next two most trusted scored 73
      - The next four most distrusted sources all scored 25
      - MSNBC News scored 57 as did Fox News. (Obviously Liberals scored MSNBC high and Conservatives scored Fox high)
      - CNN scored 65 as did CBS, NBC, and NPR
      - Neutral at 45 would be sources such as Politico, Huffington Post, and Drudge Show

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   2. 59

      God shetposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I have a very simple question for everyone who's interested about media on a whole: What do all these guys do when there is nothing to talk about?

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      1. 86

         My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Go insane.

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      2. 71

         rhamsonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I was watching Fox Snooze waiting for a commercial on another channel to finish when Gretchen Carlson made a comment about thinking on the spot when the newscaster is lost in a story. Her words "We just make it up".

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   3. 71

      rhamsonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It Is as I had thought. Ideologies hang onto the last shred of insanity.

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   4. 87

      MizBejabbersposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Trustworthiness in news sources -- ain't happening, nobody's neutral. I say this as a former journalist with both BA and MA in journalism. Everybody's got a slant even if they try to be neutral, and I don't think they even try anymore. I believe that at one time journalists could be trusted, but no more. While I was working on my MA, we were still being taught:  1. Be neutral and report both sides fairly, 2. Respect individual and family privacy during tragedies, and 3. National security comes before your story. (Respect national security over sensationalism). The seeds of media dissent were being sown at that time. I remember that in one class, a student argued with the professor that it would be his job to report what he saw regardless of national security. He was shouted down by the class, but apparently that is the policy of today.
      Regarding polls, they are as accurate as the bias of those polled, therefore ranking of polls can't accurately forecast news trustworthiness. Conservatives are going to say they can't trust CNN, while liberals are going to say that Fox News can't be trusted. And as for Rush Limbaugh, everybody knows he's crazy, and so are the publishers of the Daily Kos. So there you have the two polarized crazies!
      In my opinion,  the most accurate reporting of anything in the Middle East was when Christine Armanpour was reporting for CNN. Today Middle East reporting can't be trusted because of the nature of the beast. It comes through correspondence pools, which means that we can be fed pap or have the truth whitewashed, depending on who is doing the censoring.

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      1. 71

         rhamsonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Bernie Goldberg wrote the book "Bias - A CBS insider exposes how the media distort the news". He takes on CBS with a vengeance and describes several instances of stories being either censored or completely ignored. It is a wonder anything can be related by these clowns that does not wreak of distortion and manipulation. It is always not as it seems with these guys.
         
         "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts."    Abraham Lincoln
         
         It is one of the biggest travesties of our country when the press is an atrocity to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. But everything is for sale these days.

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         1. 86

            My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Well, the Right has been banging on CBS, ABC, and NBC for a decade now, but that is how the People Lincoln talked about stack them up.  They rate Fox and MSNBC lower as well they should.

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         2. 89

            Dr Billy Kiddposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, Rhamson, everything is for sale. Hysteria takes the cake.
            Yet money tops hysteria. For example, Karl Rove just ran a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal. It said that billionaires have to come to the plate to swing the election. Within the news cycle, Rove had $17 million to buy the Senate for Republicans.

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      2. 86

         My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Neutral is neutral in this sense: For MSNBC, Liberals of both types find it more trustworthy than untrustworthy (duh) and Conservatives of both types believe just the opposite (again, duh).  So that leaves those Pew rated "Mixed" on a 10-question survey to determine political leanings to determine the "trustworthiness" of the news source.  In this case, as well as Fox's, they found the outlets neither more trustworthy or less trustworthy ... hence neutral.  Maybe "undetermined" might be a better word.

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   5. 64

      maxoxam41posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I don't see in what way you can still trust the Wall Street journal, the economist... do you think that they are the remaining  independent sources? Linbaugh and wall street think the same way, don't they? Both of them are the voices of the neocons, aren't they?
      Therefore my ranking is simple. I flush them all in the toilet..........

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      1. 86

         My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Personally, since I lean Left, I would rank the WSJ "less trustworthy".  It is, nevertheless, what the respondents chose as most trustworthy across all ideological groups; surprised the hell out of me.

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      2. 89

         Dr Billy Kiddposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Maxoxam41, you said, "Linbaugh and wall street think the same way, don't they?" Brilliant! Just "show me the money." That's where they're coming from.

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   6. 83

      Don Wposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If you haven't already, read Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, by Herman and Chomsky. It's an oldy (1988) but a goody, as the basic principles are still applicable.

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2. 78

   Kathleen Cochranposted 9 years ago

   As someone with a background in newspapers, this list is what I would expect, but I don't expect everyone to agree with it.  For many, a source of information is not trustworthy if they don't agree with it.  So it begs the question we should all ask ourselves:  Do we want information or do we just want to be told what we want to hear?

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   1. 86

      My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Perfect.  I wish they had POTUS from Sirius/XM on their list.

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