Newspapers Rate High in Public Trust Factor, But Public Broadcasting Tops All Media

By: Miki Johnson People trust newspapers like The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times more than commercial broadcast news but less than public broadcasting, according to a survey released Thursday and summarized by John Eggerton on the Broadcasting & Cable Web site.

A Harris telephone survey, commissioned by the Public Relations Society of America, found that 61% of the sample generally trusted news on PBS and NPR, 56% trusted major newspapers, and 53% trusted commercial broadcasts and cable news. These "trust" percentages were created by combining "trust completely," "trust," and "trust somewhat" responses. Newspapers received the highest "trust completely" response, with 13%, versus 10% for noncommercial news and 4% for commercial news.

Fifty-four percent of respondents also said they did not rely on blogs or Internet chat rooms for their news and information.

Another part of the survey, questioning 150 executives in Fortune 1000 companies and 150 senior Congressional staff members, found they trusted newspapers most, at 78%. Noncommercial news followed at 75% for executives and 70% for Hill staffers (although the 8% margin of error muddles these positions). Commercial broadcast trailed with 62% for staffers and 59% for execs.

Seventy-nine percent of the executives and 70% of the staffers surveyed said they did not get news and information from blogs or chat rooms.

The surveys were conducted between June 17 and August 17, 2005, and the general public findings, from a nationwide cross section of 1,015 U.S. adults, was weighted to align with actual proportions.

A detailed view of the findings is available at PRNewswire.