Trust TV news?....yeah, right….

I'm trying to avoid kicking the dead horse here….

The Gallup polling organization interviewed 1,004 Americans in early June, and discovered that "confidence" in TV news is at an all-time low.

Conservatives, moderates and liberals apparently are agreed on at least this point: only about 21% of each group are willing to say that they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in TV news. In other words, most of us don't trust the news on TV. I didn't hear anyone yell "Surprise!"

Ladies and gentlemen, that's 1 out of 5 who rely on TV news….who are these people? What do they think they know about TV news that the other 79% of us don't seem to know?

Here's my view, and, by the way, full disclosure: I stopped watching television completely—network, cable, History Channel, everything—on February 25, 2009.



TV news has become "entertainment" that doesn't require the fullness of truth.

TV news in some cases—I hesitate for reasons of personal decency to mention Fox News as one but not the only example—is deliberately biased to support a partisan point of view that is boosted by powerful and wealthy people who most certainly don't have my best interests in mind…..

TV news feebly ignores substantial topics that have important and dangerous implications, short term and long term, for our personal and collective lives….each of us can readily think of examples.

Bottom line: the most widely accessible news medium in America is mistrusted and disdained by most Americans.

I wish Gallup had also asked: "Why are you still watching news on TV?"

Media and horse races...