Gallup’s latest opinion poll adds another nail to the Media coffin. A growing majority believe it is biased.
Overall, U.S. adults estimate that 62% of the news they read in newspapers, see on television or hear on the radio is biased. They think the news media mostly provide accurate information, but still estimate that 44% of what they see is inaccurate. And they believe that more than a third of the news they see in these channels is misinformation — false or inaccurate information that is presented as if it were true.
Americans are even more critical of the news they see on social media. They believe 80% of it is biased, 64% is inaccurate and 65% is misinformation.
That’s not very flattering, and while it may seem refreshing this is not.
The American Views: Trust, Media and Democracy report found consensus among Americans that the spread of misinformation on the internet was a major problem for U.S. democracy. Major internet sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter have been criticized for their role in the spread of misinformation on the internet. Seventy-six percent of U.S. adults believe major internet companies have an obligation to alert their users when they are certain a story being shared on their platform contains misinformation.
So, the people polled don’t trust the media. They trust them less when the stories are online. But Google, Facebook, and Twitter are qualified to determine when they are certain that a story has disinformation? And when they make that decision, they should warn readers?
Asking decidedly liberal conduits to act as fact checkers is tantamount to demanding more bias.
And here I was beginning to have hope for the huddled digitally addicted masses.
