June 2, 2015
While Rush Limbaugh often refers to himself in his typical tongue-in-cheek style as “America’s Anchor Man,: it’s a pretty safe bet that neither he, nor anyone who understands the News and Talk radio industry, would call his program — nor those hosted by fellow Premiere Networks syndicated hosts Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck — a “news” show, at least not in a traditional news sense.
Although non-industry media often confuse the two, radio industry folks understand that there are “news” shows and ‘Talk about the news” shows — in fact, it’s the whole basis for “News/Talk” radio. But that little detail didn’t stop a lot of media outlets from headlining stories on a published report from Pew Research, on a study asking Millennials who they trust most (and least) for news, as proof the conservative Talk radio trio are the “least trusted” sources among the younger respondents. The same survey also reports that Millennials say they trust three sources for news more than their Gen X and Baby Boomer counterparts – The Daily Show, theColbert Report and Al Jazeera America. Participants were prompted to offer an opinion on how much they trusted or distrusted a lengthy list of “news” sources that included pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. Along with the aforementioned Talk radio hosts, the list also included the traditional news networks – ABC, CBS, NBCand PBS — along with cable-newsers CNN, FOX and MSNBC. It also included numerous news and opinion websites, entertainment shows and websites, traditional and alternative newspapers and news and feature magazines. Read Pew’s official summary and analysis of who and what Millennials trust for news HERE.
