A recent PEW research study shows that citizens are trusting the news press less and less. Similarly, I am sure that if you conducted a study and asked the public if they believed that journalists followed a code of conduct where their first loyalty is to the citizens, the participants would answer with a resounding no. I would also agree that I do not believe that journalists follow their supposed codes of conduct. While it is good to hear that such a thing exists, it is unfortunate and rather hypocritical for most citizens to feel like journalists do not actually follow it.
Journalists ARE in control of the news. So it is their own fault that citizens don't trust them. They incite fear and distrust more than anything else. The media will only mention stock numbers when they are low, they never mention them when the stock ended on a high. The media will report frightening statistics on deaths, but not hopeful statistics on crime. The news is not balanced. They feed off of trends similar to authors feeding on the vampire romance craze. The next presidential debate is more than a year away yet most of our news is consumed with following the lives of nominees. Rumors fly all around; questions such as "Is this person actually going to run for president?" are asked even when politicians have stated many times that they are not going to. Why waste news time to talk about ridiculous things like that? The news media is not trusted by citizens because they give no reason for citizens to trust them. If journalists truly believe they follow a code of conduct, then they should ACTUALLY FOLLOW IT and quit trying to simply get high ratings and profit.
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