Did you know that 47 states now have petitions to secede from the US? Does it Bother you that the United States is so divided?

Disgruntled voters now have petitions from 50 States. You can find them on the White House web site and sign if you are inclined to do so. If you are in favor of secession you will be sorely disappointed at the lack of numbers agreeing with you.

Nevertheless, it does not take an American history expert to recognize this is not unprecedented. Only on very rare occasion have we Americans not been polarized. WWI and WWII are two of those rare occasions when unity prevailed. Otherwise, going all the way back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence (and before) we were at one another's throats. Although the Colonies had been at war with England for over a year when the Declaration was signed (actually on August 2nd not July 4th) there was much passionate disagreement that acts of violence we not uncommon. While a majority of the Colonies eventually ratified it don't think for a minute the people were unified. And, that was just our beginning. The next 12 years leading up to ratification of the Constitution (which passed by the slimmest of margins) were some of the most turbulent years in our history. Or shortly thereafter in 1794 when Washington road at the head of a 15,000 man army into Pennsylvania to quell the "Whisky Rebellion".

Take time to review the 50 year period leading up to the Civil War and you will liken today as sunny walk on the beach.

So, your question"does it bother....."? I suppose so. I defended their right to petition Government, even for secession, while a member of our armed forces. I will defend that right, and all others than come with citizenship, with all my might. That's just who we are and how we act. I remember the 60s and 70s like they were yesterday and they weren't all that pretty like Kent State in 1970 (there are so many more). What would really bother me is if they actually attracted enough signatures. I trust that will not happen. If it does then ask the question again and I give a different response.

I don't need to avoid any question. I am certain that even you can google this information. It is notorious!

Pew: 75% of Americans say journalists can’t get their facts straight


by Julie Moos
Published Sep. 23, 2011 11:45 am
Updated Sep. 23, 2011 12:03 pm
Pew
Americans trust local news organizations more than any other source — including national news orgs, government and business. But that’s not saying much.

Only one-quarter of those surveyed say news orgs get the facts right, a new low since 1985 when the question was first asked. Two-thirds (66 percent) say stories are often inaccurate, a new high. And nearly three-quarters of Americans believe that journalists try to cover up their mistakes, rather than admit them.



While Republicans have long held negative views of the media, Democrats and independents are increasingly critical of it.

The survey finds that the growth in negative attitudes toward the news media in recent years in several key areas has come among Democrats and independents. … In 2007, 43% of Democrats and 56% of independents said stories were often inaccurate. Since then, the percentage of Democrats expressing skepticism about the accuracy of news reports has increased by 21 points to 64%, and the percentage of independents saying this has grown by 10 points. Republican views have held fairly steady: 69% see stories as often inaccurate, little changed from four years ago (63%). …

Even on issues where there continue to be substantial partisan differences, such as in views of political bias and whether the media is too critical of America, the gaps have narrowed. … Three-quarters of Republicans (76%) say news organizations are politically biased, a view shared by 54% of Democrats. …
Four years ago, Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to view the news media as too critical of America (63% vs. 23%). But in the current survey, far fewer Republicans (49%) say this, while the proportion of Democrats that see the press as too critical of America has grown eight points to 31%. …
For the first time in a Pew Research Center survey, as many say that news organizations hurt democracy (42%) as protect democracy (42%).
Americans rate more highly the particular news sources they use. And they continue to get their news first from television, then the Internet, newspapers and radio. About a quarter get news through social networks. Most interesting, almost three-quarters (73 percent) of those who do say they “mostly just get the same news and information they would get elsewhere. Just 27% say the news they get over social networking sites is different than the news they get elsewhere.”

Taken together, the findings indicate negative opinions about media are higher than ever, Pew shows.

MANY MORE where this came from - keep looking Tom....

Gallup is out this morning with a new poll that contains a damning indictment of the mainstream media. 60% of Americans, an all-time high, do not trust the mass media to accurately or fairly report the news. Mind you, that isn't 60% of Republicans or conservatives, but Americans of all political persuasions.
From Gallup:
The record distrust in the media, based on a survey conducted Sept. 6-9, 2012, also means that negativity toward the media is at an all-time high for a presidential election year. This reflects the continuation of a pattern in which negativity increases every election year compared with the year prior. The current gap between negative and positive views -- 20 percentage points -- is by far the highest Gallup has recorded since it began regularly asking the question in the 1990s. Trust in the media was much higher, and more positive than negative, in the years prior to 2004 -- as high as 72% when Gallup asked this question three times in the 1970s.
Last year, Gallup found that almost half of Americans (47%) believed the mainstream media had a liberal bias. Unsurprisingly, Republicans are the most distrustful of the media. Only 26% felt they could trust the media to accurately report the news. This is actually similar to levels registered in 2008.
The biggest shift is with Independents. Less than a third of Independents, 31%, felt they could trust the mass media. This represents a big drop from 2008.
As a result, only 39% of Americans say they very closely follow the mainstream media for news about national politics this election year. This, too, is a sharp drop from 2008.
The media has long had at least a slight liberal bias, but changes in technology and the market have pushed it much further left. In decades past, the media could act as a gatekeeper and decide what was and wasn't news. They could push coverage favorable to liberals, but few people realized they were doing this. They were able to give an unnoticed and subtle nudge to politics.
They can't do that anymore. They may ignore the news that the events in Libya were a terrorist attack rather than a riot, for example, but the information will still get out. They may try to ignore the economic slowdown, but people still feel the results. The media can no longer control information. As a result, rather than gatekeepers, they have become active participants in the political battles. Their liberal partisan bias is now obvious to everyone.
The good news is that fewer people are paying attention.
Note: Gallup's question only focused on mass market mainstream media, i.e. newspapers, TV and radio. It did not survey internet news operations, where biases are often openly admitted. For example, everyone knows Politico and Huff Post are left-wing, while sites like this one and Daily Caller lean right. It would be interesting to compare trust levels between mainstream and on-line media

Thanks for the detailed and concise response. You clearly state what polls show people think. We can probably agree that why they think so is due to erosion of journalistic ethic and rise of profiteering from journalism. News as entertainment is big business.

It should not go without notice that PBS has been found the most trusted news source:

http://www.publicpolicypollin...

It shouldn't be Ironic that the non-profit is the most trusted.

Nevertheless, these just tell us what we think or believe. While I like to know this I prefer to go deeper and check the accuracy of claims/statements. For this I choose several sources for comparison:

PolitiFact.com
Factcheck.org
Snopes.com
Washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact...

When I find three of four agree I have some confidence the truth is revealed.

I suppose its our nature to gather with those with whom we agree. Self-affirming discourse tends to give us confidence that we are right and provide some feeling of security.

In an effort to break away from that security blanket I choose to explore, or dig deeper. I do this by using several sources for basic information and then cross checking with the fact checkers listed above. That doesn't make me right but I think I get closer to right than I would otherwise.

I also like to discourse with folks like you who I may disagree with etiologically but who I can learn from.

One thing I'm confident of is that when Senator X makes a statement at a news conference he/she is pursuing an agenda and is more than likely spinning. Next, I'm confident that when reporter Y tells me what Senator X said and why he/she said it I am hearing more spin. I have not found a better way to uncover truth than to spend time doing the research myself.

Thanks for your time.