Public Trust in News Media Continues to Slide

Pew Research just released their most recent polling data on how the public assesses the news media for fairness and accuracy. Editor and Publisher ran their analysis here. If this gets much worse, the media will be right down in the cellar with Congress. How can we turn this around? Could it be that the public actually wants some bias? Today we all have the means to find the reporting that reinforces our biases. This could be an example of the way people might condemn others for their bias while saturating themselves with expressions of their own opinions. Since a news outlet cannot please everyone, it would seem to make good business sense to pander to a particular group. If there is an example out there in which this strategy failed, please post it and restore my faith in humanity.

Update: Robert Jensen, professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, had this to say.