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.

This poll also asked for opinions on the media's coverage of the Iraq war. While slightly more than one-third of respondents, or 38.3 per cent, felt the media coverage of the war was accurate, the public seems "especially disturbed that negative media reports damage U.S. troop morale," the press release quoted Jerry C. Lindsley, the director of the school's polling institute, as saying. A whopping 70.7 per cent said they strongly or somewhat agreed that negative reporting was damaging morale.

Interestingly, when those surveyed were asked who they consider most likely to provide "trustworthy and balanced reporting on the Iraq conflict," they essentially split the vote between U.S. military officials (30.8 per cent) and the U.S. news media (28.3 per cent). The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 per cent.

But get this: To the same question, only 4.8 per cent of respondents favored "U.S. government officials," evidently meaning the non-military variety, as giving out the trustworthy and balanced news of the war. That was far behind yet another source -- foreign news media, which scored 20.8 per cent!