confirmation bias and credulity
The PPP (Public Policy Polling) poll on trusted news media has gotten a lot of play this week, often summarized as "Fox is the most trusted news network." For those who look at the details, as pointed out by Ellen at NewsHounds, it is clear that Republicans are the ones who trust the (GOP-leaning) Fox because it tells them what they want to hear: the poll's crosstabs show that Fox is trusted by 70% of McCain voters, 74% of Republicans, and 75% of conservatives. Democrats and independents, slightly more skeptical about their news sources, are more evenly split between the networks.
In a blog post about the poll, PPP's Tom Jensen observed that "These numbers suggest quite a shift in what Americans want from their news:"
A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality. It says a lot about where journalism is headed.
A significant proportion of Americans believing that Faux News is "Real news: Fair and balanced" is as damning an indictment as I can imagine about both confirmation bias and credulity.