While Television remains the dominant news source — 71% of those asked say it’s where they get most of their national and international news, 64% say it’s where they get their local news, and 40% say their main source is a cable news network — the rest of the new study by the Pew Research Center is slightly less positive.
The integrity category seems most bleak, as WaPo’s Howard Kurtz points out, “Public respect for the media has plunged to a new low, with just 29 percent of Americans saying that news organizations generally get their facts straight. That figure is the lowest in more than two decades of surveys by the Pew Research Center, which also found just 26 percent saying news outlets are careful that their reporting is not politically biased. And 70 percent say news organizations try to cover up their mistakes. That amounts to a stunning vote of no confidence.”
Of course, one of the more interesting angles on these studies are the reported partisan divides between networks. David Bauder of the Associated press writes, “Nearly three-quarters of Republicans surveyed (72 percent) view Fox News Channel positively, with 43 percent of Democrats feeling that way, Pew said. CNN had the opposite results: 75 percent of Democrats view the network favorably, while 44 percent of Republicans do. MSNBC, which has become more overtly liberal in primetime over the past year, has 60 percent approval from Democrats, with only 34 percent from Republicans.”
You can see the full breakdown chart of CNN, FNC, and MSNBC after the jump…
Partisan Views of Leading News Outlets:
| Total | Rep | Dem | Ind | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNN | % | % | % | % |
| Favorable | 60 | 44 | 75 | 55 |
| Unfavorable | 19 | 34 | 7 | 22 |
| DK/Can’t rate | 21 | 22 | 18 | 23 |
| Fox News | ||||
| Favorable | 55 | 72 | 43 | 55 |
| Unfavorable | 25 | 13 | 36 | 24 |
| DK/Can’t rate | 20 | 15 | 21 | 21 |
| MSNBC | ||||
| Favorable | 48 | 34 | 60 | 47 |
| Unfavorable | 19 | 35 | 7 | 20 |
| DK/Can’t rate | 33 | 31 | 32 | 33 |
The study also finds: “There has been a gradual widening in the partisan differences in the viewership of both Fox News and CNN in recent years. More than three times as many Republicans (34%) as Democrats (10%) say they get most of their national and international news from Fox. By comparison, Democrats are more than twice as likely than Republicans to cite CNN (29% vs. 13%). A similar pattern is evident for MSNBC, with more Democrats (9%) than Republicans (3%) citing it as a main news source.”