We live in an era today in which both journalists and the public in the United States are struggling to reach a consensus on what constitutes good journalism. It's no longer enough for journalists themselves to think they are doing a good job. Recently, though, there have been disturbing data that this is not the case. National surveys document a reservoir of resentment toward the American press and its practices. Arrogant, insensitive, biased, inaccurate, and sensational are the words the public uses to characterize the media.
Newspaper circulation is flat or falling.
Although people are reading more, they're not reading newspapers. And TV news viewership is plummeting. The Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan, international foundation, recently conducted a survey on the state of the First Amendment. Overall, the press held its First Amendment rights in higher esteem than did the general public. This is an increase of 15 percentage points from a similar survey in 1997.