But that can’t happen to us, cause it’s always been a matter of trust.
PPP’s annual poll on TV news finds that there’s only one source more Americans trust than distrust: PBS. 52% of voters say they trust PBS to only 29% who don’t trust it. The other seven outlets we polled on are all distrusted by a plurality of voters.
Just like its actual ratings, Fox News has hit a record low in the four years that we’ve been doing this poll. 41% of voters trust it to 46% who do not. To put those numbers into some perspective the first time we did this poll, in 2010, 49% of voters trusted it to 37% who did not. Fox has maintained most of its credibility with Republicans, dropping just from 74/15 to 70/15 over that period of time. But it’s been losing what standing it had with Democrats (from 30/52 to 22/66) and independents (from 41/44 to 32/56).
We find once again this year that Democrats trust everything except Fox, and Republicans don’t trust anything other than Fox. Democrats put the most faith in PBS (+61 at 72/11), followed by NBC (+45 at 61/16), MSNBC (+39 at 58/19), CBS (+38 at 54/16), CNN (+36 at 57/21), ABC (+35 at 51/16), and Comedy Central (+10 at 38/28). Out of the non-Fox channels Republicans have the most faith in PBS at -21 (27/48), followed by NBC (-48 at 18/66), CNN (-49 at 17/66), ABC (-56 at 14/70), MSNBC (-56 at 12/68), CBS (-57 at 15/72), and Comedy Central (-58 at 8/66).
I would feel sorry for FOX News, but they brought this upon themselves with a business model designed specifically around building an echo chamber and then complaining about the acoustics to everyone else. Dick Morris is gone, as is Snowmobile Snooki, but they’re picking up Assclown Assclownson and Professional New England Himbo Scott Brown, proving once again that wingnuts never really get discredited, they just fail along various vectors with a partial positive component. In other words, if FOX is only bleeding credibility among the GOP at the rate of only one percent a year, they have a very long and lucrative time left wrecking our country.
Call it the Calculus of Derp.
MikeJ
So Fox is really just trading in the toe sucker for the goat fucking child molester and one photogenic failed candidate for another.
Chris
41% of voters trust Fox News. After all that’s happened, 41% of voters STILL trust Fox News. Oy, vey and gevalt.
Forum Transmitted Disease
22% of Democrats trust Fox? Fuck. We are not doing something right, folks. That number ought to be zero.
Comrade Scrutinizer
I am so stealing this.
PeakVT
Democrats put the most faith in PBS (+61 at 72/11), followed by NBC (+45 at 61/16), MSNBC (+39 at 58/19), CBS (+38 at 54/16), CNN (+36 at 57/21), ABC (+35 at 51/16), and Comedy Central (+10 at 38/28).
Happy optimists are entirely too trusting. /grumbles the grump
Actually, they’re half right: most of those organizations don’t really set out to lie on a regular basis (unlike Faux). But the bombardment of propaganda from various right-wing outlets, combined with the conservative-leaning outlook of media elites, means most news organizations get a lot of stuff wrong. The USPS discussion is a perfect example.
Redshirt
@Chris: Close to the Repuke vote in national repukes.
Which must consist of the 27% + so called “uninformed” voters who have no real idea how vile the Republican party truly is. Plus a small percentage of sociopaths.
Baud
Republicans really don’t trust Comedy Central, do they?
General Stuck
There is still going to be a shit pot of wingnuts out there to create mischief and mayhem. But I think this is maybe a pol shift in line with other signs of a more reliable and more majoritarian dem voting base.
And it seems to me that someone at Fox has gotten that memo, or at least a rough draft of it, and carving off the craziest crazies for a more sane and moderate stable of wingnut commenters. Like Brown and even Erick Erickson has been banging the drum for some less crazy he himself has been famous for.
Still lots of wingnuts out there, but without a reliable voting block majority, they are mostly toothless, or resigned to only monkey wrench liberals and progressive majorities. And if played right, and I think it is right now with pres Obama and a amazingly tightened up dem congress, then dems can slowly assist in ratcheting down the right wing echo chamber into a less potent force. We shall see.
Fox likes money, more than its GOP Pravda role, apparently. Good wingnut
MikeJ
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
There are an awful lot of nominal Democrats who like to prove how open minded and above the fray they are by parroting republican attacks. And there are probably a fair number of people who just like fucking with pollsters, either lying about party affiliation or their actual views of trustworthiness.
Tone in DC
I can see trusting Colbert. I cannot believe anyone trusts Erin Burnett, SE Cupp, Billo and Erick binErick.
Maybe Faux News recently figured out You Can’t Go The Distance With Too Much Resistance.
Chris
@MikeJ:
That and people who identify as Democrat or Republican because they remember how their party was in the old days, but in practice vote straight-ticket Other Party.
Rick Massimo
I didn’t know Scott Brown was “in talks” with Fox News, but – yeah, of course he is. Why else wouldn’t he have run for Kerry’s seat? What else has he got to do?
Omnes Omnibus
@Rick Massimo:
If he loses senate races twice in about six months, he would never be able to wash off the loser stink and run for major office again. If he is interested in running for governor, he might well be best served by being on the sidelines for a little while.
Felanius Kootea
I saw somewhere that Dennis Kucinich is going to have a show on Fox News. Please tell me I was hallucinating when I read that.
Citizen_X
Nice, Zander, but I’m still gonna have to go with Douchebag Douchbageson.
Citizen_X
Erp. Zandar.
The Other Chuck
I prefer The Audacity of Dope.
WereBear
The only conclusion I can come to is that Faux News watchers bob along on a simmering reservoir of bitterness, hatred, and rock-bottom self-esteem.
The unceasing lust for enemies and scapegoats, the endless reasons they should blame others for their troubles, the constant cries of “But, you’re special!” based solely on a lak of melanin… I am stymied by figuring out any OTHER reason to drench oneself in Fox Madness.
ruemara
@Felanius Kootea: I have not heard of a show, but he will be a contributor.
A Matter Of Trust
First-time commenter lured out by a title from an (obscure?) awesome Billy Joel song.
JGabriel
@MikeJ:
Not “just”. Going from Bible Spice to the Himbo indicates that Ailes realizes his core audience is old male closet-types who prefer a “sexy Pin-up Daddy” to a “hot Hockey Mom”.
.
Patricia Kayden
Didn’t think that Repubs would hate Comedy Central. Stewart and Colbert (especially Stewart) seem pretty evenhanded when it comes to calling politicians out.
Conservatives should develop an alternate rightwing version of Comedy Central. That would give Palin and Morris something to do with their free time.
mclaren
Huh? Faux News is thoroughly trustworthy. You can always trust them to lie, distort, misreport, and obfuscate the facts. If Faux News says it’s day, you know it must be night. If Faux News tells you the Rapture will occur tomorrow, you can sleep safe ‘n sound in your bed, secure in the knowledge that you’ll ne’er be troubled.