WHO ARE THESE ILLITERATE, UNEDUCATED SO-CALLED CITIZENS? – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  In his wonderfully ironic manner, Andrew Malcom of the LA. Times's Top of the Ticket blog examines a devastating new Gallup survey reporting that Americans, can you believe this, don't trust the news media.  Those ungrateful right-wing nuts:

According to that fringe polling outfit named Gallup, a record 57% of Americans profess little or no trust in this country's mass media to report the news fairly and accurately.

What a crock!

They could have put it another way: An amazing more than four out of 10 Americans (43%) may perhaps believe most everything they read in the news or see on television.

But no, Gallup has to go for the sensational, to feed this crazy belief among a few hundred million Americans that the media is somehow biased in its presentation of the people and happenings that go on all over this crazy place.

And...

According to Gallup's findings, nearly half of the country (48%) is convinced that the....

...news media is too liberal, while only 15% dare to say the media is too conservative. According to this same poll, one-third of Americans think the media is just about right -- meaning not really right-right, but about right, like Goldilocks' porridge.

And...

Ridiculous! If that was the case, these evil-doing media types would focus superficially on the hair or clothing styles and costs of one female political candidate without noting the hair plugs and boring blue everyday neckties of her male opponent.

If the media was really biased, it would ask, say, a meaningless trick geography question of one candidate, while interrogating another on how he handles such a busy travel schedule and still manages to look so good and be a great dad.

Ouch.  Andrew Malcolm at his best.  Read the whole piece.

COMMENT:  The delusional executives in New York, Washington and Atlanta (CNN), believe their problems are caused by the growth of the internet.  That is a factor, but loss of trust is the greater factor.  After all, Fox News is booming, and they face the same internet. 

I sweep the news outlets, print and broadcast, every day.  The extent of the liberal bias in most of them is appalling, and they show little interest in correcting it.  That is their world.  No one who bucks the party line will get far.

September 29, 2010