"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

At the risk of going totally off-topic, at what point has the news media
had the respect of the American people?

Up until the 80's when alternative media came into being and the blatent
dishonesty, hypocrisy and slovenlyness became known.

Well, I have to disagree somewhat because public issues with the media go
back at least to the coverage of Vietnam. Can't remember how it faired
during World War II, but previous to that the respect factor would have more
to do with the cluefullness (lack thereof) of the public than the accuracy
of the media (lack thereof.) My point is that if you study the history of
mass media in the United States you won't find a period in which they were
particularly respected except by their own readers. Exceptions going back
to the 19th century include The Oregonian, The Chigaco Tribune and the New
York Times, but they weren't without sin either.

Recall Abraham Lincoln's marginally-constitutional imprisonment of several
critical publishers.

An America with short attention spans, poor memory, and a dearth of
critical thinking skills hasn't helped to keep them on their toes,
either.

Unfortunately, I can't disagree. I studied Journalism at OSU under an
two-time Pulizer prize winner who required all J students to have a science
minor because he was tired of hearing about bigfoot, killer bees, Alar and
other cyclical and nonsensical media phenomena. (My senior thesis was to
interpret scientific data on the dietary benefits of oat fiber versus wheat
bran, back when everybody was reporting that one or the other prevented hear
disease. Turns out there's not a signifcant difference.)

We live and will always live in a world where some amount of people believe
whatever they read. The only variable is what they choose to read, whether
it's USA Today, the Wall Street Journal or Moron.org

-c