The study is part of a three-year, million-dollar push by the ASNE to figure out just why people don't trust them as much anymore, and, by extension, to reverse declining circulation. The good news for print? Readers distrust television even more. Some 42 percent rated the box the most biased form of news media, while print clocked in at a relatively svelte 23 percent.
Of course, this may just be what people think the pollsters want to hear. "There's a real disconnect between what people tell a pollster they want and what they will actually read," says former TIME executive editor Richard L. Duncan. After all, somebody's buying all those "Special Crisis in the White House" editions -- even if they feel bad about it afterward.