Survey Finds Less Public Interest in Recent News

The American public seems less interested than usual in the news lately and has failed to absorb even basic facts of many recent stories, a Times Mirror survey released today has found.

Although most Americans know that Nelson Mandela was elected president in South Africa, only 39% know that the stock market has been in decline in recent months. Only 22% can identify Vincent Foster, the White House aide who committed suicide last year.

Those are a few of the results of the Times Mirror News Interest Index, a continuing study of public response to the news. The study is sponsored by Times Mirror, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times and owner of other newspaper and communications companies.

The recent charges of sexual misconduct involving President Clinton also have not riveted the public, the poll found. Only 15% of those polled said they are paying very close attention to the lawsuit by former Arkansas state employee Paula Corbin Jones, who alleges that Clinton sexually harassed her while he was governor.

And a majority of those polled, 54% to 23%, said Clinton is far more believable than Jones. The poll also found that Clinton’s approval rating stands at 46%.

Although Washington scandals generally do not generate wide fascination, even by these standards the Jones story is not registering. Nearly twice as many people, for instance, said they very closely followed charges that former President George Bush’s chief of staff misused military airplanes for personal use.

The press did not fare well in the survey. Only 53% of those questioned said they think the press is being fair to the President, 15 to 30 percentage points lower than the rating given the press during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

The poll, which surveyed 1,206 adults between May 12 and 15, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, and the results could be subject to further error because of the wording of questions.

A majority of Americans are oblivious to most major foreign events, the poll suggests. Only 33% know that the leading presidential candidate in Mexico was recently assassinated, and 29% know that the slaughter in Rwanda has reached hundreds of thousands.

Only one in five of those polled said they know that North Korea again has raised the specter of nuclear war by threatening to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and about the same number know that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has used air strikes against the Serbs in Bosnia.

Of the other recent stories dominating the news, none won “very close” attention of even 40% of the public. Most months, at least the top one or two stories attract at least that level of interest.

Thirty-six percent of those polled said they paid very close attention to the death and funeral of former President Richard Nixon, the same percentage that paid such attention to the congressional ban on assault weapons. Thirty-seven percent said they were paying very close attention to news about health care reform.