Re: [Salon] Poll: Only 28 Percent of the Public Has 'High Confidence' in Higher Education

This might be worthy of note, and explanatory of why Rupert Murdoch owned Fox News, commentator Turley, a zealous Trump defender, would be so protective of Lewis:

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/20/1219570870/washington-post-will-lewis-tabloid-hacking-prince-harry

"Lewis' career flourished. In 2012, he moved to New York to become chief creative officer for News Corp. globally, which includes The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and many other outlets.

"Two years later, Murdoch and News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson named Lewis the chief executive of its Dow Jones division and publisher of the Journal. He served for six years, earning marks as accomplished and sure-footed.

"He stepped down in 2020, ambitions still intact."


Given Jeff Bezos is now so immersed in the U.S. Military Industrial Complex, “Space Force,” and with Elon Musk, will profit even more under a Trump Presidency promising massive military spending increases for Space Weapons (SDI, reincarnated), per Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, it's little wonder he would turn to a former Murdoch officer to end the criticism of Trump from the WaPo, and to turn it into an even worse war provocateur than it already is. 

https://www.defenseone.com/business/2024/06/blue-origin-cleared-bid-national-security-launches/397382/
BLUF: "This marks a big win for Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, which has yet to fly a national security mission. The company pitched its heavy-lift rocket New Glenn, which is set to fly for the first time in September.”

This is the MIC having direct control of major media with a dedicated Military Conservative of Fox, adding to the already horrific WaPo’s feverish warmongering to take that to an entirely higher level. Just like the New York Post, WSJ, and Fox network do! Another Fox News, “news source,” in all but name and ownership. And further evidence of the “Billionaire Blob’s” total control of what limited information we’re allowed to have.  



On Jun 18, 2024, at 7:44 AM, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:


Poll: Only 28 Percent of the Public Has “High Confidence” in Higher Education

A new poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago (commissioned by Foundation for Individual Rights and _expression_) shows that only 28% of Americans have a lot of trust in higher education. Academia has continued to alienate much of the country as an orthodox, echo chamber. As with media outlets, the result has been falling interest and trust in these institutions.The poll asked “How much confidence, if any, do you have in U.S. colleges and universities?”

Only 28% said they had a “great deal of confidence in colleges and universities. Not surprisingly, given the ideological balance at most schools, the highest levels of trust came from Democrats and liberals. However, even this group only showed a 40% high confidence rate. Among Republicans, it drops to 12% and among independents it drops to 28%.

For most businesses, such negative reactions would be viewed as catastrophic. For academia, it will not matter of a whit.

It is still personally beneficial for professors and administrators to push ideological agendas and maintain the lack of intellectual diversity on campuses. These professors are not challenged in their writings or their statements. They dominated publications, awards, and associations. In the meantime, these schools still receive sufficient support from alumni and, in the case of public universities, public funding.

This could not come at a worst time as many decide that college is simply not worth the money. At the same time, falling birthrates are impacting dropping applications. Others have little interest in going to institutions where they must hide their political viewpoints or values.

We have seen the same phenomenon in the media were media outlets are collapsing in viewership or readership but reporters are resisting every to return to a more neutral and objective basis for coverage. Recently, the Washington Post’s new publisher and CEO William Lewis recently dropped a truth bomb on his writers by telling them “let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

The response from the media has been a campaign against Lewis and another editor tasked with saving the newspaper from itself. The New York Times, National Public Radio, and other outlets have piled on Lewis with a series of attack pieces. This is being actively and openly supported by reporters at the Post and could well work in pressuring owner Jeff Bezos. The result will be to stay the course of plunging trust and readership at a paper that is hemorrhaging money and readers.

We need great universities and great newspapers as a nation. We need Princeton and the Post. That is why this trend is so alarming. These are hardened silos that seem impenetrable to efforts to restore trust in their product.

--
Salon mailing list
Salon@listserve.com
https://mlm2.listserve.net/mailman/listinfo/salon

This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail (Mailman edition) and MHonArc.