More bad news for the Press

The latest study on public opinion on the press is out from Pew Research Center for People and the Press (link), and it's more bad news.  The Pew study reports that 63% of the public feel that news reports are often inaccurate, and only 29% think that news organizations generally get the facts straight. They report strong declines in virtually all of their items on press accuracy in the last few years.

More troubling, perhaps, is that only 26% think that the press are careful to keep political bias out of news reports.  Both Republicans (84%) and Democrats (67%) overwhelming feel that press reporting favors one side. Also hitting all-time lows: only 20% feel that news organizations are independent of powerful groups or people, and only 21% feel that the press is willing to admit their mistakes.

This suggests a serious and growing credibility problem for the press.  Which is also an economic problem, as declining credibility negatively impacts the value of news to consumers.

This may help explain the other recent report: The Washington Post released its financial report for the first six months of last year.  It shows they lost more than $143 million in that period.  That works out to a loss of $1.10 per copy sold.  No wonder they were trying to sell access to politicians at parties.