Over half of Americans don't trust the media

The Pew Research Center released a study titled "Views of Press Values and Performance: 1985-2007" yesterday that shows that more than half of Americans believe that the US news media is "politically biased, inaccurate and don't care about the people they report on." Additionally, the study found that the internet news audience (yep, all you smart people out there who have turned off your t.v. and put down your newspaper), who "tends to be younger and better educated than the public as a whole...are among the most critical of press performance." I couldn't agree more. Is this really a surprise to anyone? The internet generation is moving away from traditional mass-media in droves, and it ain't just news. More importantly, we're going through a period where the younger generation doesn't trust the traditional power structure. The mainstream media represents established corporate interests, internet media represents open communication, interactivity and community. While mainstream media is certainly making a good deal of money off of internet media (MySpace, YouTube, etc...), as a whole, the community stands above the rest. Yeah, I can go read the New York Times online, but I can also get information from three dozen other places that don't have a ready made bias, so why would I?