This just in — Republicans Distrust Media:
Republicans “remain deeply distrustful of the national news media — in sharp contrast to Democrats, who have a great deal more trust in the media’s accuracy,” according to a new Gallup poll.
“Overall, less than half of Americans, regardless of partisanship, have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media. Nearly half of Americans — including over three-quarters of Republicans — perceive the media as too liberal while fewer than one in five say the media are too conservative. Americans are less likely to perceive bias in their local news media than in the national news media.”
Akin to “all politics is local,” local news is always understandable because you know the people and places involved. Your tribe, your local neighbors, are unlikely to be much more liberal or conservative than you are. The stuff that airs on New York stations might not be popular or even possible in Peoria.
The flip side of this? As everyone eventually learns, there is nothing more discouraging that reading a general news article about your area of expertise, as it makes you wonder how many of the other articles you’ve been read are just as fact-free. I suppose a lot depends on how much depth and breadth the local newspaper features: if everything you read reinforces what you already know, you’re not really being informed. This is the benefit to having more than one local newspaper. What big cities in the US have two or more independent (ie, without conjoined business operations) newspapers? I know most cities have a large daily and a few smaller free papers, and the free papers do add some balance, but home delivery builds a habit.
New York has the Times, The Sun, The Post, Newsday, and probably more I don’t know about. What other US city has more than one?