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Introduction and Summary Television news is in trouble with the American public. Fewer adults are regularly watching it these days. Viewership of nightly network news is particularly hard hit. Fewer than half the public (42%) now says it regularly watches one of the three nightly network broadcasts — down from 48% in 1995 and 60% […]
Report Summary American journalists have a different view of the way they do their job than does the public they serve and the leaders they cover. The outside world strongly faults the news media for its negativism. Journalists at all levels are equally adamant in rejecting this charge. They are no more adversarial than they […]
Report Summary Fewer people are reading newspapers and watching network television news these days. It is unclear whether this is a continuation of the long-term decline in audiences of both media, or whether it is a result of the O.J. Simpson trial, which has gripped the attention of a significant percentage of core news consumers.
Report Summary With few exceptions, American voters were not very pleased with the way the press covered the fall election campaign. Exit surveys, which questioned over 20,000 voters as they left the polling booth, found the media getting average or below average grades for its work on the midterm elections. Fewer than half of respondents […]
REPORT SUMMARY Many Americans think the press is being unfair to Bill Clinton, and the public most often complains that the media has come to an earlier judgment about this President’s performance than it did about his predecessors. But the public does not blame the press for being too critical of Bill Clinton, nor for causing […]
Report Summary In expressing significant doubts about press performance on the two most closely followed news events of the past month, at least two out of five Americans felt the press was too critical of the Clinton Administration and the FBI for their handling of the Waco, Texas cult tragedy. And one in three complained […]
Report Summary The believability of NBC News has been diminished in the eyes of the public after it admitted that it staged the explosion of a General Motors truck during a segment of the newsmagazine program “Dateline NBC.”
Report Summary Despite an upsurge in consumer confidence, the attention of the American public continues to be focused on the economy. Nearly two out of three Americans (62%) believes that the economy is still either in a recession, or in a depression, while only 34% of the public thinks that an economic recovery has begun.
Report Summary A substantial majority (55%) of the American journalists who followed the 1992 presidential campaign believe that George Bush’s candidacy was damaged by the way the press covered him. Only 11% feel that Gov. Bill Clinton’s campaign was harmed by the way the press covered his drive to the presidency. Moreover, one out of […]