Most newspapers believe they should include a good daily dose of entertainment news for readers who appreciate it. Stars and Stripes expanded its entertainment coverage -- mainly from contracted news sources -- several years ago, hoping to better serve its relatively young audience.

But any newspaper faces the question, how much such news is enough? And, what kind of entertainment news should be featured? Should it be heavy on celebrities, or on reviews of music, theater, movies? Stripes keeps a pretty good balance among different kinds of entertainment reports, in my view, but one selection angered a reader.

There have been no shortage of stories lately about vets receiving less than good treatment after returning from the war zones. They included accounts of horrid conditions at a recuperation ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and of slow assistance being offered to soldiers with mental trauma.

In a recent blog I reported on a Sacred Heart University poll of the public's views on the news media, and specifically their reporting on the Iraq war. Some readers have asked for more information from the survey.

A link to the study is not available, but here's one to the university's news release on it. It includes all major findings, including respondents' assessments of the news they receive from various news outlets.

The public's disdain for the nation's news media continues unabated. The latest evidence comes in a poll conducted by Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Only 19.6 per cent of those surveyed nationally said they believed all or most news media reporting, a press release said. That's down from 27.4 per cent in a similar poll from 2003.

The university's department chair for media studies, Dr. James Castonguay, says  the proliferation of news sources available through the Internet no doubt adds to the skepticism many feel toward the mainstream media. Still, the findings continue a trend begun even before cyberspace was invaded by millions of bloggers.

Some people expect the media to be omniscient. Would that it were so. Most of the time, newspapers and the electronic media have to report first what they're told (one hopes by credible sources), and then delve deeper. Such was the case with this month's military and diplomatic flareup over a confrontation between U.S. and Iranian naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz.

The various parts of a newspaper hold special interest for distinct types of readers. Readers who are into local news and current affairs gravitate toward the front of the paper, while those keen on business, sports or entertainment news go to those sections. The opinion pages appeal most to people with an interest in ideas and advocacy. But because those pages normally deal with issues affecting just about everyone, editors hope they are perused by a lot of readers.

Amost since the invasion of Iraq, there has been controversy over the media's coverage of the war. As casualties mounted -- both of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians -- reporting from the field and from Washington seemed steeped in pessimism. The military complained that reporters were ignoring or downplaying whatever good things were happening on the ground.

Although there may not have been much to cheer about, there did at times seem to be a herd-mentality feeling to what the media were saying. Nothing was seen to be going right.