Being popular is never a high priority among most successful journalists, the very nature of whose work often ends up costing them “friends.”
So by that measure, perhaps, they are accomplishing at least that ambition very well indeed, notwithstanding all the wrangling about how so many of their mainstay news outlets appear headed for readership oblivion.
The once-revered Fourth Estate can take heart, therefore, from a September Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults showing 54 percent of those surveyed holding journalists and reporters, en masse, held in a “somewhat unfavorable” (30 percent) or “very unfavorable” (24 percent) attitude toward them. That compares with 12 percent “very favorable” and 31 percent “somewhat favorable.”
All of which makes the media folks less disliked than members of Congress (72 percent somewhat and very unfavorable) and tied with lawyers – also at 54 percent somewhat and very unfavorable.
The rankings of some of the others included in the September 17-18 Rasmussen survey, with a sampling error +/- 3 percentage points and a 95 percent level of confidence:
Rasmussen Favorable Ratings for Professions(Credit to Rasmussen Reports)
| Favorable | Unfavorable | Rating | |
| Small Business Owners | 92% | 4% | +88 |
| People Who Start Own Business | 88% | 12% | +76 |
| Pastors and Religious Leaders | 72% | 22% | +50 |
| Bankers | 44% | 52% | -8 |
| Lawyers | 41% | 53% | -12 |
| Stockbrokers and Financial Analysts | 37% | 56% | -19 |
| Journalists | 38% | 57% | -19 |
| Members of Congress | 26% | 68% | -42 |
| CEOs | 22% | 73% | -51 |