Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Americans remain highly critical of the job performance of both Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress. Many offer harsh assessments when asked for one word impressions of the current Congress. Among the most frequently offered are variations on dysfunctional, corrupt, self-serving and inept. Job approval ratings for the leaders of both parties (31% for Democratic […]
Newspaper coverage of the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal grew more intense this spring than at any time since 2002, and European newspapers devoted even more ink to the story than American papers did, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. The heavy coverage in Europe was a reversal of the pattern […]
Public trust in the federal government in Washington is at one of its lowest levels in half a century. Just 22% of Americans say they trust the government to do what is right “just about always” (3%) or “most of the time” (19%). The current level of skepticism was matched previously only in the periods […]
Summary of Findings Americans stayed focused on the unfolding oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last week, while the effort to cap the underwater well and limit the damage was one of two stories that dominated media coverage. The media devoted comparable levels of coverage to the spill and news about last week’s primaries […]
Attitudes and actions Over time, users have become less likely to express concern about the amount of information available about them online. [14.numoffset=”14″ As is noted elsewhere in this report, this survey was fielded before Facebook announced the most recent and controversial changes to its default privacy settings.] To even the most casual news observer, […]
Summary of Findings As Americans continue to track the debate over health care reform closely, a growing minority – now 39% – says they think health care legislation will pass this year. Just before the Feb. 25 bipartisan summit at the White House to discuss the stymied legislation, 27% said they thought a bill would […]