NEW YORK A new survey to be released Monday reveals a wide gap on many media issues between a group of journalists and the general public. In one finding, 43% of the public say they believe the press has too much freedom, while only 3% of journalists agree. Just 14% of the public can name “freedom of the press” as a guarantee in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, in the major poll conducted by the University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy.
Six in ten among the public feel the media show bias in reporting the news, and 22% say the government should be allowed to censor the press. More than 7 in 10 journalists believe the media does a good or excellent job on accuracy--but only 4 in 10 among the public feel that way. And a solid 53% of the public think stories with unnamed sources should not be published at all.
Full Story @Editor & Publisher
I do not think this will shock anyone, except the media. ;-)
"New Survey Finds Huge Gap Between Press and Public on Many Issues"
Noooooo! I don't believe it! Say it ain't so!
Posted by: mrs. muddy at May 16, 2005 11:39 AMI don't think they have to much freedom, but rather, to little thought goes into a story being published. Journalists don't think about the consequences of a story as much as they do the number of copies sold and when they have to make a choice, they will almost always err on the side that will have the most sensationalism.
Posted by: skywalker at May 16, 2005 08:28 PMthis comes out the same day the pentagon forced newsweek to backtrack on their story. how ironic.
on one hand you have newsweek publishing a more than likely true story, then because of bad PR the pentagon makes them retract it. this is not the first time the government has asked media not to report on something. usually its because of an ongoing investigation, this time its just because the pentagon doesnt want the bad rep and havoc it would cause if more truth came out about what really happened. in reality the onus is on the DOD to come clean. im sure if it was Up to bush administration, abu grahib would just be CBS and the "leftist liberals" making up a news report based on wild rumors, -- if there wernt thousands of pictures. [which most of the really bad ones wernt released]
really the way administration hanlded has made it worst. of course they have no credibility or record of telling the truth, so im sure to the arab and muslim world they will see this as a coverup. which in reality i dont blame them for since it probably is.
Posted by: mooseboy84 at May 16, 2005 11:59 PMIt sure shocks me. (20% favoring censorship !!)
But I've long learned not to be considered as anyone...
mooseboy: newsweekhas admitted that their story was based on a single, anonymous, unverified source who has also backtracked.
Posted by: skywalker at May 17, 2005 07:45 AM