VITAMEDIAS
Trust in media keeps on slipping: Public confidence in the media, already low, continues to slip. Only 36%, among the lowest in years, believe news organizations get the facts straight, a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.
Trust in the media has dropped from 54% in mid-1989 - about the time of the fall of communism - to a low of 32% in December 2000, during the post-election confusion over George W. Bush and Al Gore.
Low marks for the media reflect a larger societal trend today, says Todd Gitlin, a Columbia University journalism professor: ''I think you'll find almost all institutions declining in popular repute.''