FoxNews, as its announcers will tell you ad infinitum, has the highest cable news ratings. That never ceases to dismay me, but it’s true. At the same time, however, at least as many people can’t stand Fox as like it.
A new annual poll by Public Policy Polling of Americans’ attitudes toward TV news found that Fox News is the most distrusted name in TV news, and the distrust is growing. The good news for Fox is that it is also the second-most trusted network (after first-place PBS, a finding which will outrage the staunchest Fox viewers if they ever deign to venture outside FoxWorld).
The truly bad news for Fox lies in the poll’s trending; namely, Fox’s distrust level rose by nine points in the last year, from 37 percent who distrusted it in 2010 to this year’s 46 percent. (42 percent say they trust Fox; 50 percent trust PBS the most). For the full poll results and findings, just click here.
This article appears in Jan 18-24, 2011.
Fox and CNN are the only cable news outlets included in the poll. Network news does not (openly at least) include opinion based programming, making this somewhat apples and oranges. Even you must be aware that what Beck does is not news, but commentary. Obviously there is no face of Fox’s News staff that plays to your lefty target audience, so I get that you used him, but would you portray an Olbermann as a trusted news source to be fair?
I don’t trust polls from pollsters that blatantly lean one way or the other. PPP is very much liberal/left leaning. And anywho, I don’t allow a ‘poll’ determine what news source I find credible or not credible.
BV, you really need to read the post again before you ask irrelevant questions – although I’ll answer them nonetheless. First, the poll was for all TV news, not just those on cable, so your first point is irrelevant. As for portraying Olbermann as a trusted news source, no I wouldn’t. But, again, it’s irrelevant, since the post was about Fox News being the most distrusted news tv news source, not MSNBC. And SP, the PPP group is indeed run by liberals but they have a reputation for producing very evenly balanced polls, so your comment there is, guess what, irrelevant. And as for you not allowing a poll to determine what news source is credible, no one is asking you to do that (nor would anyone care, I imagine), so, one more time, it’s irrelevant. You guys make this stuff way too easy.
Grooms, I almost always agree with the jist of your articles but in these responses you’re coming across like an overly-defensive jerk. I find a civil post getting such a condescending response from the author pretty off-putting.
I understand what you’re saying and you may be right. Frankly, though, I’m so tired of rightwing bozos “commenting” here, in invariably irrelevant ways (and that’s at their best), it gets pretty frustrating, so now and then I let them have it. As another CLer says about himself, I’m a liberal, but I’m not a bleeding-heart liberal, and if I’m consistently contradicted or berated by morons, at some point they’ll hear about it. Sorry if that offends you, but I have to stay sane at this job and it helps.
The points made by BV and SP do anything but paint them as “bozos” and “morons”. You are the one who comes across as such by resorting to a flurry of invectives as soon as your omniscience is questioned.
The point is that polling is the laziest strain of “news” extant, and reporting on polling lazier still.
I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself and demonstrate your smarts:
1. How is a dollar created?
2. How does the answer to #1 relate to the recent food riots in no fewer than six third-world countries?
No Googling allowed.
Len, thanks for proving my point for me again; namely, that rightwing trolls have made a collective nest out of comments sections everywhere, and have become an increasingly recognized, sad downside to the internet, rather than the scholars of govt they seem to think they are. And as for your “giving me a chance,” should I laugh now or wait till the day you have the guts to put your full name to your posts? Because without that, how in the world do you Fox parrots expect anyone but yourselves to take you seriously?
blah blah blah rightwing blah blah blah fox parrot blah blah blah moron blah blah blah fuck grooms the dickless asscunt blah blah blah
So eloquent and reasonable, Len. Thanks so much for showing your true colors.
Hey Grooms I’ll show you my true colors whenever you want. Time and place, babycakes. TIME AND PLACE.
How to become John Grooms in easy steps:
1. Write an ignorant and easily-refuted column full of long-discredited partisan claptrap.
2. Respond to rational critiques thereof with infantile namecalling.
3. Insult your ever-declining readership.
4. Feel your nuts draw up into your anal cavity when commenters call you on your idiocy.
PS: Several months ago you railed against private for-profit “colleges” like University of Phoenix but you ignored comments pointing out that it’s really government funding through pell grants and student loans that enable these fraudulent diploma mills. Over 80% of Phoenix’s revenue is from the feds.
Now it turns out that student loans are considered OFF-BUDGET (here is the proof straight from the White House website – see the item “Direct loan accounts” in table S-14: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/11msr.pdf) and are responsible for a $200 BILLION runup in the federal debt in ONE YEAR.
Just another example of you failing to address the facts that totally destroy your worthless bullshit arguments.
Grooms, I know it’s tough to have people challenge you for your lazy, intellectually dishonest post. Does the tactic of claiming something as irrelevant because you don’t have a good answer work in the echo chamber you prefer to operate in? You use Beck’s image because in has power, even though you acknowledge that he is not part of Fox’s news team, but does commentary just as Olbermann did. It was somewhat refreshing for you to admit that you blast us because we have a different viewpoint from yours, but calling folks a Fox parrot or a right-wing bozo just because they challenge what you say is pretty weak. Do you speak for CL officially when you only want less than half of folks to feel welcome reading this stuff?
“Time and place, babycakes?” Thanks for the blatant threat of violence. All you rightwing trolls, but apparently especially you, Lenny, need to take a deep breath, relax and then proceed to get a real life, outside internet comments sections.
And BV, your silly question about whether I want “less than half of folks to feel welcome reading this stuff” is hilarious, considering that there’s obviously nothing anyone could do to keep you from reading my blog posts and then “responding” with whatever the Fox/Rush echo chamber has said about whatever issue is at hand. The real problem is that on most sites, the trolls have the comments sections to yourselves since most writers, who probably have more sense than I, don’t call you guys out on your nonsense. Sorry if that makes you mad, but if you have a “right” to go off-topic on nearly every single post, then I can certainly point that out. One more thing to clear up: no one calls you a Fox parrot because you disagree with them; it’s because your “comments” are usually just the standard, tired far-right talking points Fox rehashes day and night.
How in the hell is commenting on the poll, your comments, and the picture you included off topic?
Can’t we all just get along?
I can’t speak for anyone else who leaves comments but I like reading your blog, Grooms, to think through how I myself feel about the issue. I am not a ‘right winger’, there are a few times I’ve agreed with things you’ve said. If I had a blog, I’d love to have people leave comments from both sides, not just people who agree with me 100%, that’s boring. It seems people these days can’t participate in honest debate without resorting to name-calling. Sad.
BV: “How in the hell is commenting on the poll, your comments, and the picture you included off topic?”
Depends on what you mean by “comment.” The post was about a poll that showed Fox is the most distrusted. Your comment misrepresented what the poll was about, which was ALL tv news sources, not just cable news; your complaining about the Beck photo is irrelevant to the info presented by the poll.
And yes, of course I know, as you obviously do too, that Beck’s show isn’t a news show. The problem — the SERIOUS problem — is that there are a whoooole lot of his viewers who don’t get the difference, and go around spouting Beck’s weird theories as if they were handed down by the Associated Press — which is no doubt one of the main reasons Fox isn’t trusted. But that’s not the only problem with Fox “News” – their own “news” shows are more often than not riddled with snide, conservative asides or the issues are framed in a way that lead viewers to a conclusion consistent with conservatism. It’s not exactly a secret that Fox News practically rubs viewers’ faces in its conservative bias; the opinion shows only serve to accentuate that.
And SP: Sorry if I went off on your initial comment. You’re right, you’re not one of the standard-issue rightwingers who plague comments sections everywhere. As for comments from all sides, I would love nothing more than a real, measured, well-informed debate about some of the issues, but for now, comments sections on blogs are just about the last place you’re going to find that, other than highly moderated blogs at outlets such as Wall St. Journal or NY Times.
And that, ladies and gents, is the last answer to a comment on blog posts that I will write from now on, as I’m wasting valuable time. I mean it this time, and I hope I’ll even be able to stick to it.
“blatant threat of violence”
Hardly. I’m just calling you out on your gutless cowardice – you want people to think that sitting behind a keyboard gives you nuts of steel when in reality you don’t even have feathers in your jockstrap.
BTW, I noticed you left these statements from the Public Policy poll OUT of your commentary:
“Democrats trust everything but Fox. Republicans don’t trust anything but Fox. And independents don’t trust much of anything… For independents 44% trust PBS, 36% Fox, 34% CNN, 33% NBC, 27% CBS, and 26% ABC.”
So it turns out that among those who aren’t nutjob partisans like yourself, Fox scores highest among commercial news outlets.