Press

Scientific research has come under attack and rightly so. Researchers get Grants and one way for a newbie is too come up with some surprising results. The researcher is often times working alone and can find it tempting to adjust the data to achieve some end. This leads to more Grants and a reputation that reflects favorably on the university. This is the way much of the news media operates. They selectively accept information that fits an agenda and often times this is just what the editors want. This brings in more customers either in print or online. Even when the dishonesty is exposed not much happens to deter future shenanigans or in many cases it actually encourages others to join in. Soon you have a whole newspaper on TV station reinforcing one another's opinions on current issues. This practice is so common that most people have lost faith in the press. Polls show that approval of the press has declined steadily from 72% in 1976 to 32% today. Some say that Trumps attacks on the press as being fake news exacerbated the problem but the data doesn't back that up. Press approval in 2016 was 32% and it rose to 45% in 2018 and then declined to 40% in 2020. Over the past three years it has dropped to 32%. This is data from https://news.gallup.com/poll/512861/media-confidence-matches-2016-record-low.aspx