I'm sure many of you will argue that putting 'liberal' and 'unpatriotic' in the same title is redundant but we'll save that argument for another post. Pew has a new poll out on the public's perception of the job the media is doing to report the news.

Pew Research
Summary of Findings
Public attitudes toward the press, which have been on a downward track for years, have become more negative in several key areas. Growing numbers of people question the news media's patriotism and fairness. Perceptions of political bias also have risen over the past two years.

There's a shocker. I guess mainstream America doesn't like it when you accuse American soldiers of killing members of the media as target practice and then fail to back up the claim with even one shred of evidence. They also don't approve of you when you smear our troops by wrongly claiming they flushed the Koran down the toilet, thus inciting fiercely anti-American riots in the international community.

I'd point to the Rathergate Memos as evidence of the media's attempt to rig a Presidential election in favor of the Left but I think that would grossly oversimplify and understate the problem.

The biggest loser in the Pew report is probably the daily newspapers (i.e. NYT, Washington Post). Their "believability" has dropped a whopping 30 percentage points in the past 20 years; from 84% in 1984 to 54% and still falling in 2005. Wow, those numbers suck.

There may be some good news around the corner though. The editor of the NYT, Bill Keller, has some interesting ideas in response to a report from its own Credibility Committee...

Editor and Publisher
The aim, he (Keller) wrote, is "to stretch beyond our predominantly urban, culturally liberal orientation, to cover the full range of our national conversation."

Sounds alright but I'm not holding my breath.