But when the public faces conflicting reports on television and newspapers, it puzzles out the truth using common sense and logic. News consumers take into account which medium had more time to check out the facts and which was under deadline pressure to report what it knew at the time. There is great skepticism among readers about unnamed sources. Newspapers have a public education opportunity here. The public perceives that newspapers don't consistently demonstrate respect for, and knowledge of, their readers and communities.
Journalists are much less critical of themselves.
Journalists are not a representative sample of the public. They are better educated and younger, their household incomes are often higher, and journalists are more likely to be political liberals than the public at large. Nobody doubts that journalists are cynical, including the journalists themselves. But Americans also believe that journalists are quite willing to hurt people just to publish a story. Readers concede that journalists are better informed than the public.