Dulce Et Decorum Est

WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) — A new poll shows that four years into the Iraq war, the American public has lost confidence in information offered by both the media and the military.

The drop mirrors public perceptions about how the war is going overall. In 2003, days after the invasion began, 90 percent said it was going well. Now just 40 percent believe its is going at least fairly well.

In March 2003, 40 percent of the public had a great deal of confidence that the U.S. military was giving it an accurate picture about how the war was going in Iraq. Another 45 percent said they felt a fair amount of confidence the military gave an accurate picture, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

That number dropped to 15 percent and 31 percent respectively. About 52 percent said they have little to no confidence in information provided by the military.

The press has experienced a similar drop. In March 2003, 30 percent said they had a great deal of confidence in the media’s information about how the Iraq war was going. Fifty-one percent had a fair amount of confidence. Those numbers have dropped to 7 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

The most dramatic jump occurred in those who report no confidence in press information about the war. In 2003, 1 percent said they had no confidence. That number is now 27 percent. The number of those with not too much confidence in press information jumped from 14 percent in 2003 to 31 percent in March 2007.

–United Press International (2007-04-06): Confidence in media, military declines

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 7:58 am. It is filed under Journalism and tagged Iraq, Iraq War, Lies, United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.