Since the mid-1980's, the Pew Research Center has been conducting a survey on the public's attitudes toward the press.
And this year, some are calling the results a wake-up call.
Just 29 percent of Americans say news organizations get their facts straight. 63 percent said news stories are often inaccurate. 60 percent of Americans believe news organizations are politically biased.
It's the most negative reflection of the press since Pew began conducting the survey. In fact, if one consults the charts and graphs, you see a steady decline in trust for news organizations over the last few years.
There are the usual factors being blamed here. The 24 hour news cycle demanding instant information. Less experienced people doing more work than their more experienced predecessors. Certainly we've seen our share of bungled stories. Witness the Coast Guard "drill" on the Potomac River just last week.
But I submit the perception of inaccuracy and bias is really the result of the sheer volume of information and the endless array of skewed viewpoints.
On my way to work yesterday I listened to talk show host Glenn Beck on a tirade about how "the media" doesn't really know what's going on, but he does. He's got the real story, the real scoop, which he'll lay out for us if we only tune in every day for the next three weeks.
Glenn Beck, of course, IS the media. And those who listen to him aren't listening to an unbiased, detached, objective observer. This is about Beck's point of view.
In mixing legitimate reporting with blogs and talk shows, more Americans are getting their news from these like-minded commentators who make no bones about their own bias even as they accuse mainstream organizations of a vast conspiracy.
Last week at ABC 15, the station was barraged by e-mails from viewers demanding to know where the ACORN story was. For the record, the story aired at least twice on my watch, as well as on ABC15.com. Many of those viewers accused us of deliberately burying the story. "Who are you working for?" one viewer wrote.
To me, it's symptomatic of the sort of paranoia being stirred by the likes of Beck and others. That paranoia feeds conveniently into the hands of those talk shows trying to build a following. Listen to me, they say, before they come get me and shut me down. I'm the only one who's not a part of the conspiracy.
With that constant drumbeat of mistrust -- watch out for anyone who doesn't share our opinion -- it's no small wonder more and more people believe "the media" gets it wrong. By the time they watch the news at night, they've likely already heard the story in some skewed form, and balance begins to look like bias.... simply because it's not the same.
So for the saavy news consumer in a new information age, I offer the advice journalists often give themselves: consider the source.
