The Times Poll : Media: High Ratings Are Tempered

By DAVID SHAW

Aug. 12, 1985 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Most people think the media do a good job and are generally accurate and impartial, but they also think “expensive libel suits against the media are good because they make the media more careful. . .” and they favor “permitting the courts to fine the news media for publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased or inaccurate.”

These mixed results--and other, equally mixed results--have emerged from a Los Angeles Times Poll conducted over the last five months among about 3,000 members of the general public and 3,000 newspaper reporters and editors.

The survey, supervised by I. A. Lewis, director of the Times poll, consisted of telephone interviews of about 30 minutes and 106 questions each on a wide variety of social and political issues, as well as on public perceptions of media performance.

Higher Ratings

In general, the public seems to rate the news media more highly than has generally been perceived of late. When people were asked, “Overall, how would you rate the kind of job that television and the newspapers and magazines and radio are doing. . . ?” only 5% said bad--”fairly bad,” 4%, or “very bad,” 1%--and 94% said good--”very good,” 30%, or “fairly good,” 64%. (The remainder--as on all questions in this story--either had no opinion or declined to answer.)

When people were asked to rate--separately--the job they think is being done by the newspapers they read most frequently and by the network and local television news programs they watch most frequently, more than 90% again said “very good” or “fairly good” for all three. (For newspapers, 65% said “very good” and 31% “fairly good”; for local TV news programs, 51% said “very good” and 44% said “fairly good”; for network news programs, 43% said “very good” and 48% said “fairly good.”)

The figures were roughly similar when respondents were asked to rate their newspapers and television news programs in terms of how accurately and how impartially they present the news--although, in both cases, local TV news fared somewhat better than did newspapers or network news programs.

Only a small percentage of readers and viewers rate their newspapers or television news program “very bad” or “fairly bad” in any of these categories. Only 7% say their newspapers did a bad job in terms of accuracy, for example, and only 5% say their local TV news program did a bad job in terms of “how fair and impartial they are to all sides.”

The public also gives the media higher ratings than government, business or labor for standards of honesty and integrity, for fairness and impartiality and for promoting the public good. In addition, only 6% of the public say the press should have its power cut back, whereas 37% say government should have its power cut back, 26% say that of labor and 14% say it of business.

Slightly more than half the respondents in the Times poll say the media should continue to be as critical as they have been of government, business and the church. Of those who want a change in the media’s treatment of business, most want the media to be more critical, not less; those who want a change in the media’s treatment of government and of the church are about evenly divided on whether the media should be more critical or less critical.

Moreover, the public does not think a government official should be allowed to stop the news media from publishing or broadcasting a story he believes is inaccurate (50% say no and 33% say yes).

Public reaction was somewhat more divided--and often more critical--however, on several other questions of media performance and media-government relations. Clearly, the public view of the media is a blend of confidence and skepticism, faith and hostility.

When asked, “Do you think the news media abuse the power of the press, or do you think they are careful to use this privilege in a responsible way?” 49% said the media behave responsibly, and 40% said the media abuse their power.

‘Basically Ethical?’

When asked, “Do you think journalism in America is basically ethical. . . ?” 23% said it is “essentially ethical,” 45% said it needs some improvements, 8% said it needs many improvements and 9% said it needs a fundamental overhauling.

When asked, “What, if anything, should be done about abuses of freedom of the press. . . ?” far more respondents favored having the media regulate themselves (47%) than favored making it easier to sue the media for libel (21%) or having the government regulate the media (17%); 3% said nothing should be done.

But when asked specifically, “Do you think expensive libel suits against the media are good because they make the media more careful about the facts they report, or do you think they are bad because they discourage the press from reporting stories that may be in the public interest?” 48% said libel suits are good, and only 33% said they are bad.

When asked if the courts should be permitted to fine the news media for inaccurate stories, the public voted against the press by a more than 2-1 margin--52% favoring fines, and 23% opposing them.

The public also voted against the press on two other issues, favoring “limits on news media access to government records and files” (by a margin of 45% to 33%), and favoring “requiring a reporter to reveal confidential sources if a court determines this information would provide evidence in a criminal trial” (by a margin of 45% to 38%).

Military Prohibitions

On the question of “allowing the military to bar the news media from a military operation in a foreign country,” the public was almost evenly divided--42% opposing the prohibition, and 39% favoring it.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of newspaper reporters and editors interviewed for the poll overwhelmingly opposed the prohibition--just as they overwhelmingly opposed being required to reveal confidential sources, being fined for inaccurate stories, allowing a government official to stop an untrue story and being denied access to government files.

Newspaper reporters and editors also generally gave themselves even higher marks than did the public on accuracy, honesty and impartiality. In fact, the response of the newspaper reporters and editors was about what one would expect on almost every issue involving press performance and press-government relations--with two exceptions:

--Although 65% of all newspaper readers in the survey rate the newspaper they read most frequently as “very good,” only 37% of the newspaper staffs rate the newspaper they read most frequently (presumably, in most cases, the newspaper they work for) as “very good.”

--Although 46% of the public say their paper does a “very good” job of “bringing to light the things the public ought to know about,” only 40% of the journalists give their papers a “very good” rating on that question.

Public Confidence

There is one other finding in the Times poll that may be of special interest to reporters and editors: Although several recent surveys--including one earlier this year, commissioned by the American Society of Newspaper Editors--have led many in the press to think public confidence in the media is extremely low, the press may think the public is much more critical than it actually is.

More than 90% of the public thinks the news media overall--”television and the newspapers and magazines and radio”--are doing a good job, and only 5% think the media are doing a bad job, according to the Times poll, but when newspaper journalists are asked what they think the public rating of the news media is, only 39% say they think the public perceives them as doing a good job--and 58% say they think the public perceives them as doing a bad job.

THE PUBLIC VIEWS THE MEDIA Overall, how the public would rate the job of . . .

Newspapers Local Network TVNews News Very good 65% 51% 43% Fairly good 31 44 48 Bad 4 5 4 No opinion -- -- 5

. . . in terms of how accurately it presents the news.

Newspapers Local Network TV News News Very good 39% 50% 37% Fairly good 52 46 52 Bad 7 3 4 No opinion 2 1 7

. . . in terms of how fair and impartial it is to all sides.

Newspapers Local Network TV News News Very good 30% 45% 28% Fairly good 54 48 56 Bad 13 5 9 No opinion 3 2 7

Overall, how the public feels about . . .

. . . journalism in America

Basically ethical 23% Needs some improvement 45% Needs many improvements 8%

. . . freedom of speech

Press abuses this privilege 40% Uses privilege responsibly 49%

. . . libel suits against the media