The Most Trusted News Network Is...

[Kisatchie]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32039.html

[Williebee]

“A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news,” said PPP President Dean Debnam in his analysis of the poll. “But the media landscape has really changed, and now they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.”

The telephone poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Wonder if the called cell phones or just land lines?

Here's the link (http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_126.pdf) to PPP's polling report. (pdf file) It doesn't reflect how many of what age groups, or provide any information on how the phone numbers were selected.

[backslashbaby]

I think PPP is just some dude out of Raleigh.

I'd like to see his poll on the most trustworthy polling company :D

[Williebee]

:)

They are a legitimate company, working predominately in the Carolinas. But a phone poll is still a phone poll, and a phone poll that doesn't call cell phones is inherently flawed.

I was more interested in the analysis that people are turning to media outlets that tell them what they want to hear.

ETA rant:
"Don't tell me what the news is. Tell me what I want to hear, but tell me it's the news!"

That's not responsible journalism, it's entertainment.

/rant

[Gregg]

These results don't surprise me. but I'm not familiar with PPP.
I'd like to see some other pollsters look into this.

Fox news wins the ratings contests so it is not unreasonable to think that they are also the most trusted.

[backslashbaby]

LOL, we have so many market research, etc., places it's hard to tell sometimes :) We are the average demographic on very many things for the US.

Yeah, phone polls just to landlines don't really work. I don't have a landline anymore, whereas my grandmother didn't know how to use an answering machine :D

[Gretad08]

I was watching MSNBC last night and Keith Olberman spent about 10 minutes going on and on and on about O'Reilly and Beck and how they always talk about ratings and him and blah blah blah. He was making fun of them for talking about people from other networks...uh, pot, meet kettle.

He read quotes from both of them for a big chunk of his show, and I just kept thinking "Okay, when do you start reporting? Oh, you mean you don't, you just bitch about anchors from other networks because they bitch about you?"

That's a lot of my opinion about the major 'anchors' from fox and msnbc. They have some sort of vendetta against each other b/c they're ideologically opposite so they've started some sort of sophomoric attack on one another, and like Willie said, it's now entertainment, not news.

[Don]

Talk about a left-handed compliment.

"Congratulations! Of all the scum-sucking bottom-feeders in the swamp, you're the least repulsive scum-sucking bottom-feeder in the swamp."

[STKlingaman]

Ah, this is an easy one.
Don't watch
Don't know
Don't care

[Wayne K]

I don't trust any of them. If they told me it was raining outside, and I could see the rain from where I was, I wouldn't believe it till I was wet.

[blacbird]

they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.

The only pertinent part of the story.

caw

[Wayne K]

Originally Posted by Williebee View Post
they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.

The same way they pick their political party

[History_Chick]

I was watching MSNBC last night and Keith Olberman spent about 10 minutes going on and on and on about O'Reilly and Beck and how they always talk about ratings and him and blah blah blah. He was making fun of them for talking about people from other networks...uh, pot, meet kettle.



Frankly he's just wasted space in my opinion. It's like yeah, I got it...move on. I mean if MSNBC want him on the air then its their choice, but I just find him annoying as hell.

But this poll does surprise me. I wouldn't have thought it would be Fox.

[Don]

I was more interested in the analysis that people are turning to media outlets that tell them what they want to hear.

The only pertinent part of the story.

The same way they pick their political party
That makes it sound like the Democrats have an uphill battle ahead this fall.



More importantly, this really drives home how out-of-touch the American people are with the needs and desires of their political ruling class. That can only bode ill. The people need to get a clue. :rolleyes:

[pink lily]

"There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics."

Polls are bullshit. Don't poll 1000 landline users who take calls from strangers and tell me that those poll responses represent any percentage of "Americans."

[Norman D Gutter]

I haven't fully trusted any news since Dan Blather announced, "James Brady is dead."

[brokenfingers]

I don't watch news on the TV. That's what the internet is for.

[Elaine Margarett]

A *nationwide* poll that called 1,115 landline phones??? Wow. Now there's a comprehensive survey.

What a joke! LOL. A faux poll, like Faux news.

[DeleyanLee]

The most trusted channel for news? That's really easy:

The Comedy Channel. That's where the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are.

Duh.

[BenPanced]

And The Onion.

[sassandgroove]

The only pertinent part of the story.

caw
Which is conjecture.

[Shadow_Ferret]

Wait. Can't CNN sue? Isn't "The most trusted name in news" their slogan?

[veinglory]

Um, a poll of over a thousand people is at the very least food for thought. PPP did most likely do some balancing to make it representative. And regardless, the results ring pretty true to me.

[sassandgroove]

"Don't tell me what the news is. Tell me what I want to hear, but tell me it's the news!"




bb responded
The only pertinent part of the story.

caw
I know I said this but I want to back up my statement. Given the size of the poll-

A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network.

The conclusion that the PPP rep drew - that people just want the news to tell them what they want to hear- is just conjecture. 1000 people is hardly an adequate sampling of the entire US. And further more, it could be that people want the truth. If that's what they want to hear, then how is that a bad thing. I am not sure you can get the whole truth from one source, mind you....

[Roger J Carlson]

A *nationwide* poll that called 1,115 landline phones??? Wow. Now there's a comprehensive survey.

What a joke! LOL. A faux poll, like Faux news.1151, and where did you read they were landlines?

Actually, 1000-1500 participants is not unusual. Looking up random surveys on the internet finds:

1,026 in this Gallup poll (http://www.gallup.com/poll/125399/News-Media-Tepid-Ratings-Obama-Watchdog.aspx)
1,500 in this Rasmussen poll (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll)
1,504 in this Pew Research poll (http://people-press.org/report/578/)

[Roger J Carlson]

Originally Posted by Williebee http://absolutewrite.com/forums/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4566921#post4566921)
they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.
The only pertinent part of the story.

cawActually, that part of the story is editorial opinion, not fact.

[sassandgroove]

for that matter - regardless of the size of the poll, unless there was a question - what do you want to hear in the news- or whatever, that statement is conjecture.

[pink lily]

Um, a poll of over a thousand people is at the very least food for thought. PPP did most likely do some balancing to make it representative. And regardless, the results ring pretty true to me.
Yeah, my thought is that not the poll sample is a poor representation of the average American. I mean, how many people here gleefully pick up their landline phone when they don't know who is calling, and agree to be polled for a survey? We're talking about a very limited segment of the population here: very friendly landline users who have enough time and courtesy to respond to a poll.

I think it is scientifically inaccurate to state that the opinions of 1100 people are in any way representative of the 308,565,531 other people in the nation.

[sassandgroove]

1151, and where did you read they were landlines?

Actually, 1000-1500 participants is not unusual. Looking up random surveys on the internet finds:

1,026 in this Gallup poll (http://www.gallup.com/poll/125399/News-Media-Tepid-Ratings-Obama-Watchdog.aspx)
1,500 in this Rasmussen poll (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll)
1,504 in this Pew Research poll (http://people-press.org/report/578/)
THanks Roger- Ididn't know that.

[Perks]

Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday.



Trusted to do what? And for my opinion on telephone news polls, please see -

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168651

[pink lily]

1151, and where did you read they were landlines?

Actually, 1000-1500 participants is not unusual. Looking up random surveys on the internet finds:

1,026 in this Gallup poll (http://www.gallup.com/poll/125399/News-Media-Tepid-Ratings-Obama-Watchdog.aspx)
1,500 in this Rasmussen poll (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll)
1,504 in this Pew Research poll (http://people-press.org/report/578/)
Yeah, this makes me feel that most polls are unreliable and unrepresentative. I've never been a fan. I used to volunteer with some minority groups who loved to rely on poll results to prop up their position, and it was a disappointment to see so many otherwise intelligent people rely on poll data as if it meant anything tangible.

The US Census is probably the closest thing to a representative survey of the populace that we'll ever see. I suppose the Census doesn't ask people about their personal media preferences.

[Williebee]

That's awesome, Perks. And yeah, Sass, I agree that it is conjecture, or at best an informed opinion (the guy does make a living at this).

Repeating, for clarification, the poll results I provided in the link above, from PPP does NOT indicate whether they called cell phones or just landlines. It also doesn't say how many of each age group they talked to.

I have no real problem with the number of folks they called. However, the way you conduct a "random" poll spins the results.

[sassandgroove]

Something sort of funny. The other day I was driving home and the guy on the radio was talking about this percent of people polled this and that percent of people polled that and I thought, no one has ever polled me. So I get home and my husband is on the phone - yeppers- answering a poll! This one was state based, specifically about candidates for governor, but still. I felt a little more included after that.

[robeiae]

I think the numbers make sense, mostly because I think there is a percentage of peeps that are reacting against the heat FoxNews takes: those people want to say they trust Fox, as a matter of principle and for their own gratification.

So really, I don't think the poll results are all that interesting.

[Elaine Margarett]

I also think it's foolish to rely on one scource of news. I'm a news junky. I watch CNN, MSNBC and on local (Baltimore) news, NBC first because I prefer it, CBS, and the local Fox affiliate becasue it comes on at a convienient time.

I also read newspapers, and news magazines like Time and Newsweek.

[sassandgroove]

But the question wasn't "do you only watch the network you trust?" it was, "which one do you trust most?" (i assume) Just because you trust one more than the others doesn't mean you only watch that one.

[AMCrenshaw]

frex, I trust none and tend toward watching all, at least a little.




AMC

[SPMiller]

Gallup makes at least some effort at describing their polling process. Statistics isn't easy, and method is important. Note, for example, the final section in the Gallup poll mentioned above:

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,026 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 20-21, 2010, as part of Gallup Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones and cellular phones.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.Any poll that doesn't provide information like this cannot be critically analyzed and is therefore useless.

[DeleyanLee]

I took part in a Gallop poll the end of last summer. I got picked because I was "the adult in the house with the closest birthday".

The poll was on various federal political issues going on at the time, but it was highly frustrating because all the answers had to be one or the other, all positive or all negative. No middle ground, no grey in the black and white. I felt very irked by the end of it because 85-90% of my answers belonged in that middle ground region and made mention of it when they asked for comments at the end.

Because of that experience, I've lost my respect for polls because I know that I was forced to shoe-horn my responses into the very limited number of options they gave me (even to my religion--they didn't offer an "other" category so I had to pick "none" since none of their options applied but that was wrong).

I've heard before that polls are skewed to gain a particular result and I can totally buy that. Polls are like statistics--you can make them prove anything you want them too.

[SPMiller]

One of the "practical difficulties" Gallup refers to is that it's impossible to quantify an arbitrarily qualified response. In an opinion poll, most answers have to correspond to discrete choices, or else the poll is worthless. At best, pollsters can categorize nonstandard responses as Other or None, but that doesn't necessarily help the analysis.

[Williebee]

But the question wasn't "do you only watch the network you trust?" it was, "which one do you trust most?"

Actually, it wasn't. From the link above (http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_126.pdf):

Q1 Do you trust (___) News? If yes, press 1. If no,
press 2. If you’re not sure, press 3.

[Don]

I also think it's foolish to rely on one scource of news. I'm a news junky. I watch CNN, MSNBC and on local (Baltimore) news, NBC first because I prefer it, CBS, and the local Fox affiliate becasue it comes on at a convienient time.

I also read newspapers, and news magazines like Time and Newsweek.
I know some people who only get their news from Fox. I also know some who rely exclusively on MSNBC.

They both scare me a lot frequently.

[William Haskins]

it's not surprising given the polarized state of american politics. if i recall correctly, olbermann's big contract and rachel maddow's launch was a direct result of ratings increases attributable to the rejection of the bush administration.

fox was already the biggest player on the ratings block, but now it has the added benefit of being viewed as a focal point for dissent.

[Williebee]

Miss Elaine, (no offense intended, just using your post as an example - thanks) you might take a look at news sources from outside the country, as well. The view of our house from across the street can be insightful.

[Elaine Margarett]

Miss Elaine, (no offense intended, just using your post as an example - thanks) you might take a look at news sources from outside the country, as well. The view of our house from across the street can be insightful.

Hmmm, guess I didn't mention BBC and C-Span...

I told you I'm a news junkie.

[sassandgroove]

Actually, it wasn't. From the link above (http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_126.pdf):
Well I did say "I assume."
but that still doesn't imply it is the only thing watched.

[backslashbaby]

Gallup makes at least some effort at describing their polling process. Statistics isn't easy, and method is important. Note, for example, the final section in the Gallup poll mentioned above:
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,026 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 20-21, 2010, as part of Gallup Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones and cellular phones.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Any poll that doesn't provide information like this cannot be critically analyzed and is therefore useless.

QFT.

They should also tell the hours the poll was conducted. 8-5 on landline phones is bound to get an entirely different sample of people.

Oh, and they can better quantify qualitative responses than using Yes or No. The most reliable is said to be a scale of 1-7, agree not at all=1 or totally=7. That sort of thing.

[William Haskins]

they should also disclose whether they asked if the respondent had the name "dale" affixed to their first name with a hyphen.