Coverage of Officials’ Personal Behavior Excessive, Survey Says

Although few Americans followed Adm. Bobby Ray Inman’s abrupt withdrawal from consideration for the defense secretary’s job, many agree with his condemnation of the media, according to a survey released Wednesday.

A growing number of Americans say press coverage of politicians’ personal and ethical behavior has become excessive and is discouraging qualified people from entering public life, says the survey by the Times Mirror Center for People and the Press.

At the same time, however, although a plurality of Americans think the media exercise more power than political leaders or other groups in setting the national agenda, most do not believe that the media exaggerate such national phenomena as the level of violent crime--even in view of national statistics that indicate the crime rate is declining.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said they believe that the media accurately reflect violence in America, whereas only 28% think the problem is exaggerated.

A plurality of 43% described the media as the most powerful force in setting the national agenda, whereas 22% cited political leaders in Washington.

Surveyors interviewed 1,207 adults from Jan. 27 to Jan. 30. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition, the results could be biased by the wording of the questions. The Times Mirror Center is owned by Times Mirror Co., publisher of The Times.

In his controversial withdrawal as defense secretary-designate, Inman charged the press with engaging in a kind of “new McCarthyism.” Public officials are being driven from office, he said, by a negativism in press coverage that distorts their records.

The survey found that 59% of Americans think the coverage of personal and ethical behavior is excessive--an increase from 52% who expressed that opinion in a similar poll in 1989.

Although 66% of the public still views the press as an important public watchdog, according to the survey, considerably fewer than five years ago think it helps weed out unfit politicians. Now only 45% see it that way, contrasted with 60% in 1989. By 64% to 31%, the survey found, Americans think that press coverage is discouraging qualified people from entering public life.

Those polled also said the stories they followed most closely last month were neither the beating of skating star Nancy Kerrigan nor the malicious-wounding trial of Lorena Bobbitt, but the Southern California earthquake and the Eastern cold snap.