Journalism's Diminishing Credibility

By Craig Miyamoto, APR, Fellow PRSA

This is going to be short; it's here for illustrative purposes only. The figures speak for themselves.

Okay, folks, I'm not making this up. In recent years, journalism has lost a lot of credibility. Now, according to a Louis Harris & Associates poll, that credibility is sinking ever further into the swamp. On Friday, Dec. 13, 1996 (what an ominous date for journalism), results of a Harris poll were made public. They interviewed 3,004 adults between Nov. 8 and 30 (after the presidential election) in a survey commissioned by the non-profit Center for Media and Public Affairs. (Margin of error is plus or minus 2%)

They found news people are more or less like the rest of us. However:

• 42% said news people are more arrogant that the average person.
• 31% said journalists are more cynical than others.
• 33% said journalists are less compassionate than other people.
• 34% said they are more biased than the rest of us.
• 20% said they are less honest than others.

The respondents also had some definite views on how the media report the news:

• 44% said they are "often inaccurate."
• 51% said they "usually get the facts straight."
• 33% said they "deal fairly with all sides" in political and social reporting.
• 74% said they saw political bias in the news.
• 65% said it was not the journalist's job to point out "inaccuracies and distortion in statements of public figures."

The participants also had ideas about how to rein-in incompetent or overly aggressive reporters:

• 50% said it should be easier for people to sue for inaccurate or biased reporting.
• 53% said journalists should be licensed.
• 70% said courts should be able to find journalists for inaccurate or biased reporting.
• 80% said government should require news media to give equal coverage to all sides of a controversial issue.

Although 63% said the news media help democracy, this is tempered by the impression of 52% of the respondents, who said the news media abuse the First Amendment.

Now, if someone told you that you do a lousy job, that you're biased, that you should be brought under control by (of all things) government and lawyers, wouldn't you want to improve your reputation by doing what we as public relations professionals tell our bosses and clients to do all the time? That is, "Clean up your act" and give me something good to talk about for a change?

Journalists speak disparagingly about public relations. They really shouldn't. They're in more trouble with the public than we could ever be.

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