No Confidence in MSM

Glenn Greenwald - Political Blogs and Opinions - Salon: "I would never dream of coming to this blog and just start making assertions that 'Americans believe X' or 'Americans oppose Y' unless I had actual evidence to support those claims. That's because I would not expect readers of this blog to view what I write as being credible if I just spewed assertions with no empirical basis like that. No credible blogger would do that. Why don't pundits on MSNBC -- including the Managing Editor of Time Magazine -- recognize those same basic constraints?"

That's Glenn's concluding paragraph after taking the media to task in two trenchant posts, both well worth reading, even if they are a bit dated.

The most revealing three-minute YouTube clip ever

[Followup]

The main thrust is that Beltway pundits are just making stuff up about what "Americans want" when in fact there is solid polling data showing that a majority of Americans want the exact opposite.

Karl Rove's head on a pike sworn testimony before Congress being the particular case in point. And please note that as far as I am aware, no such sworn testimony has occurred.

I have to add that there are a great many conservative and liberal blogs that have, in my mind, credibility that surpasses above all but a very few US MSM outlets. The more "access to power" that these outlets have, the more unreliable I find them.

Of course, this is nothing new, and your humble scribe has only to point to this:

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The President makes decisions, he's the decider. The Press Secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home.

Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.

Steven Colbert to the White House Press Corpse. I mean, corps. I wonder what credibility "ordinary Americans" assign the Mainstream Media after ceaseless and baseless cheerleading for the war and the President's policies?

Pew Research Center survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 2007. N=1,018 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.5.
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"Now thinking about the 2008 presidential campaign -- In general, how would you rate the job the press has done in covering the presidential campaign: [see below]?"
						.
		Excellent	Good	Only Fair	Poor	Unsure
		%	%	%	%	%
	9/28 - 10/1/07	6	35	32	21	6
						.

Gee. It wasn't that hard to find that survey. It makes me wonder how hard you have to work to find nothing at all to contradict an idiotic presumption. Indeed, one wonders if they read the reports from their own research and polling efforts.