[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21501]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               AMERICANS' TRUST IN MEDIA REACHES NEW LOW

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, Americans' trust in the media has 
plummeted to an all-time low, according to a new survey by the Pew 
Research Center. According to Pew, only about a quarter of Americans 
say that news organizations are not politically biased, less than one-
third say the media generally get the facts straight, less than one in 
five say that the media deals fairly with all sides of the story, and 
just 29 percent had a favorable opinion of the liberal New York Times, 
the lowest rating for any international organization in the Pew survey.
  Americans have lost faith in the national media. Whether it's health 
care or other issues, it's up to the media to restore the public's 
trust by reporting the facts fairly.

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