Even fewer Americans trust media than just five years ago
IFI Media Watch

2/6/2008 1:51:00 PM
By Daniel T. Zanoza -Illinois Family Institute

I have been studying media bias for 15 years and one of the favorite statistics I used to quote was that 70 percent of Americans did not trust the dominant media. When I would quote this figure, it had quite an impact, and it proved to me that Americans were not as naive as those in Los Angeles and New York might think.

However, a recent poll conducted by Sacred Heart University (SHU) indicates the trust factor regarding the dominant press is worse than it was a mere five years ago. Since 2003, the level of trust has dropped 10 percent regarding Americans belief in the truth of information they are receiving from television and radio. According to the SHU poll, over 80 percent do not trust what they see or hear from the news.

These are stunning numbers. But I believe the SHU poll represents a mere fraction of the concerns Americans have with the media on the whole. The SHU poll also indicates the media intentionally tries to influence public opinion. And, in my opinion, that is the most dangerous aspect of the results revealed in this national poll.

For years, the movers and shakers in Hollywood and New York have been attempting to socially re-engineer American society. Virtually every television program or movie is a liberal morality tale, hidden within a slick package.

One of the greatest examples of the attempt to change public opinion on current events could be seen when ABC-TV featured a series starring Geena Davis titled, "Commander in Chief." The program aired literally a year or two before Hillary Clinton announced her well-known intentions to seek the presidency of the United States. Was the ABC series an accident? Or was the network demonstrating how a woman could be a strong Commander in Chief? The title even gave the message away. It was tampering with the American psyche at the highest levels.

NBC's "The West Wing" gave the nation another look at the presidency from a liberal viewpoint. Each week, actor Martin Sheen gave the country a lesson in tolerance and compassion. Amazingly, Sheen's presidential character was on the air longer than the U.S. Constitution would allow in reality. But there was no chance a conservative president would have taken Sheen's place. Could you imagine a show with Mel Gibson on his knees, praying for guidance as president of the United States on any major network television program, unless Gibson were being depicted as a conservative president gone mad.

There are more dangerous results not revealed in the Sacred Heart University poll. How does the rest of the world look upon the United States? Do other nations and cultures receive a false impression of what Americans are really about? The answer to that question is a resounding "yes." For example, Islamic countries believe the United States is the great Satan and, since they receive all their input from our television programs and movies, how can you blame them for getting this negative impression? Americans are driven by sex, prone to violence, and unworthy of trust; this is the theme Hollywood has spread around the world. Indeed Osama Bin Laden himself fears the spread of American culture more than he does the falling of American bombs.

The SHU poll should be surprising to no one, but it should be enlightening to all. However, at the same time, the study should give us all power. Recent box office results indicate Americans are not going to movies which depict sex and violence as its main theme. We do have the power to change things and it shouldn't take a poll to remind us of this obligation. Yet it is always nice to see statistics bearing out the truth.

Daniel T. Zanoza, 54, is a free lance journalist and political analyst. He has a degree in political science and social work. Zanoza formed RFFM.org nearly fifteen years ago, in an attempt to encourage fair coverage of political and social issues in the mainstream media which are important to pro-family conservatives. Zanoza often works behind the scenes with journalists in a non-confrontational manner to achieve this goal.