Originally published May 8 2015
Trust in mainstream media plummets: Only 2% of young adults trust the media
by Daniel Barker
(NaturalNews) Trust in the mainstream media appears to be taking a nosedive, at least among young people. A recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll that queried more than 3,000 people between the ages of 18 and 29 found that only 2 percent of them believe that the media can be trusted to do the "right thing" on a regular basis.
The poll found that 88 percent of those polled think that the media only "sometimes" or "never" does the right thing. In fact, a whopping 39 percent said the media "never" does the right thing. This places the media in last place behind Congress, Wall Street and the federal government in terms of trust.
High on the list of those who can be trusted are scientists, who came in first place among the 12 institutions the poll listed, with the U.S. military and local police departments claiming second and third place, respectively.
After that, in order of best to worst, came the Supreme Court, the United Nations, President Obama, local governments, state governments, Congress, Wall Street, the federal government and finally, the mainstream media.
Although these results are perhaps not too surprising, it is truly saddening that the media came in dead last. In a free society, the media should be one of the pillars, not an institute that prostitutes itself to the highest bidder, and that's exactly how things appear these days.
Mainstream media has become a cheerleading section for corporate interests and anyone else who is rich and powerful enough. Ordinary people have begun to recognize this fact, particularly young people. Perhaps this is because they can't remember a time when things were different and therefore have grown up with no lofty illusions about real journalism or a free press.
While doing research for another article, I ran across a piece posted by Investment Research Dynamics in which Bloomberg.com was taken to task for publishing spurious information regarding the health of the U.S. housing market.
The first paragraph of the I.R.D. article sums up the situation perfectly:
There was time in U.S. history when journalism reflected true investigative due diligence in which reporters made an effort to verify the validity of the topic being covered and to make a bona fide attempt to report facts. It is a process that is imperative to a healthy democracy. Unfortunately now the media is nothing more than an avenue for Wall Street, corporate America and political elites to promote false realities which are invariably connected to squeezing or stealing money from the public."
Bingo. I couldn't have said it any better.
This is not just coming from one end of the political spectrum. In fact, many of us are beginning to realize there is no real political "spectrum" in the U.S. - there is just the illusion of one, promulgated by the fake conservative and fake liberal media, both of which spew nonstop lies to keep us divided and imagining that we have real choices among parties and candidates.
The truth is that we are only given a choice between two sold-out parties who both work for the same interests: Wall Street, Big Pharma, the people who profit from endless wars (i.e. weapons manufacturers/military-industrial complex), for-profit private prisons and so on...
The one ray of hope shining through the sordid smokescreen that has been created by the "presstitutes" and "churnalistas" is the access to alternative media, which has been able to evolve along with the development of the internet.
Sites like Natural News and a few others like it offer a fresh perspective without kowtowing to the powers that be. It's encouraging in a way to see that the youth of America no longer trust the mainstream sources; why should they? At least there are some alternatives out there...
Sources:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com
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