US News Media Get Tepid Ratings as Obama "Watchdog"

Most Americans appear unimpressed by the media's performance as government watchdog in the first year of the Obama administration.

A third say the media have done an "excellent" or "good" job of filling this important role of a free press, 37% say their performance has been "fair," and 27% rate it "poor." Americans do not appear to think that the media's current performance as a watchdog is unique to the Obama administration. The plurality (43%) say the news media's performance as watchdog under Obama is on par with how it did during previous administrations; however, by 31% to 21% the remainder tilt toward believing the media has done a worse, rather than better, job under Obama.

The new poll also asked Americans to identify which one of several Obama administration policy areas they think the media did the best job of covering in the past year. Americans give the media the most credit on healthcare (24%) and the economy (20%), and somewhat less credit on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and terrorism. (This rank order may reflect the amount of media coverage devoted to each topic as much as it does the quality.) However, an even larger percentage -- 36% -- do not choose any of these issues, or have no opinion about which has been best covered. When asked which issue they would like to see the news media do a better job of reporting on going forward, the largest segment of Americans (40%) cite Obama's policies on the economy, followed by healthcare (30%). Relatively few cite U.S. wars or terrorism.