Judging the Fourth Estate: A TiME-Louis Harris Poll

PUBLIC criticism of newspapers is the shrillest and most widespread I have seen in 18 years. The public mood is uneasy, querulous, fearful." The words are those of Wallace Allen, managing editor of the Minneapolis Tribune, but the view is shared by many reporters, writers and editors. Television is also a target. After last summer's Chicago convention, the U.S. was plunged into debate over TV coverage of the riots. Did the cameramen and commentators deliberately distort their reportage in favor of the protesters and against the police? In a postmortem, NBC News Chief Reuven Frank wrote that not just "the intellectuals and upper middle brows" had turned against TV, "but the basic American audience, the most middle-class majority in history."

In a new survey for TIME, Louis Harris has undertaken a study of the public's confidence in the press, its trust and preference in news sources and its attitudes toward some of the more controversial issues covered by the media. The results indicate that although Americans are quick to criticize the way news is handled, underlying public trust in the nation's press and in its constitutional safeguards remains strong. Harris finds, in fact, that nearly two out of every three adults in his representative sample of 1,600 express the view that they are "better informed today than they were five years ago." But, Harris concludes, "this is not to say that there is a limitless blue-sky euphoria about the media. Each has its problems in communicating with the American people. Tucked beneath each encomium is a reservation of healthy skepticism."

Journalism in General

How Teddy Kennedy has been treated by the press was given particular attention in the survey. By a ratio of more than five to one, Americans agree that newspapers and newsmagazines have given Kennedy fair treatment; seven to one they say television has. The approbation is qualified however: fewer than one out of three will go so far as to say the media in general have been "very fair" in their Kennedy coverage. Not surprisingly, Harris found that the groups that generally support Kennedy —youth, Easterners, blacks and women —are more critical of the press; those who do not—the elderly, Midwesterners and Southerners, whites and men—tend to be more approving of the coverage.

The survey indicates that, with one surprising reservation, the public's favorite source of daily news is television. When asked to imagine having "only one source of news," nearly half of the Harris respondents opt for TV, as against the one-third who prefer newspapers. However, when Harris asked, "How upset would you be if your main news source were to become unavailable for a month?", the result was reversed: 44% said they would be "very upset" to lose their newspaper but only a third would be very upset over a one-month loss of their favorite television news broadcast.