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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Senior Citizens Most Likely to say Public did not
Need to Know about Feds Checking Bank Accounts
|
Seniors Most
Concerned |
|
Q - In
reporting this story, did news organizations help
or hurt the interests of the American people? |
|
|
% |
% |
% |
% |
|
|
18-29 |
30-49 |
50-64 |
65+ |
|
Helped
|
35 |
39 |
36 |
20 |
|
Hurt
|
44 |
48 |
49 |
58 |
|
No effect/Dont
know |
21 |
13 |
15 |
22 |
|
...Tell the American people something they...
|
|
Should know
about |
69 |
67 |
65 |
57 |
|
Didnt need to
know |
22 |
26 |
30 |
35 |
|
Dont know
|
9 |
7 |
5 |
8 |
The 65 and over group
again out of step with younger Americans
August 8, 2006 A new survey today again proves
that senior citizens are out of sync with younger Americans. The new
study found that most Americans feel the news media told the public
something they needed to know about, when reporting on the government
secretly examining the bank records of American citizens who may have
ties to terrorist groups. But, about half think it hurt rather than
helped. Senior citizens were be far the most likely to think it hurt and
to say it is something Americans did not need to know about.
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Senior Citizen Statistics |
|
By a margin of 50%-34%, Americans think that news
organizations have hurt rather than helped the interests of the American
people with these reports. Americans age 65 and older, however, were
more adamant. Only 20% of senior thought it helped, while a whopping 58%
say it hurt.
However, an even larger 65%-28% majority of all
ages believes that these news accounts told citizens something that they
should know about. Wait just a minute, the seniors said, with only 57%
agreeing the public needed to know and 35% saying they did not. Seniors
were by far the most likely age group to say the public did not need to
know this.
The Political Sides
Partisanship is strongly related to how people
think about these questions and again shows the divide that seems to be
widening in America.
Democrats are almost unanimous (82%) in believing
that the public needed to know about the government's bank monitoring
program. Republicans are evenly divided on this question 45% say it
was something the public should know about, 47% say the public did not
need to know.
By the same token, while nearly seven in ten
Republicans (69%) believe the press reports have hurt the interests of
the American people, relatively few Democrats agree (38%). Instead, a
46% plurality of Democrats regards the press reporting as beneficial to
the public's interest.
The findings are from a survey by the Pew Research
Center for the People & the Press conducted July 6-19 among 2,003 adults
nationwide. In the survey, half of respondents were asked if the
reporting had helped or hurt the interests of the American people, while
the other half were asked if this was something people should know about
or didn't need to know about.
In addition, all respondents were asked how much
they had heard about reports on the government program to examine bank
records. About one-in-four (24%) have heard a lot, a similar number
(29%) have heard nothing at all, with the rest saying they have heard
"some" about it.
Among Democrats and independents, hearing more
about the story did not change their views about whether or not coverage
of the story was appropriate. But the more Republicans have heard about
news coverage of the government program, the more likely they are to say
the reporting was damaging and unnecessary.
Fully 82% of Republicans who heard a lot about the
story say the interests of the American people were hurt by the
reporting, and 57% say it was something the people didn't need to know
about.
Overall, however, the public's reaction to this
most recent case of conflict between press freedom and government
secrecy is not unusual. Wide majorities have consistently supported a
critical and independent press in previous Pew Research Center surveys
saying that press criticism of political leaders does more to prevent
problems from arising than impede government performance. But at the
same time, Americans also recognize the need for government secrecy,
particularly when it relates to national security.
At no time was this more apparent than in the wake
of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A November, 2001 Pew Research
Center survey found a 53% to 39% majority favoring the government's
right to censor news it believes might threaten national security over
the media's right to report what it sees as stories of national
interest.
|
Partisan Gap on Press Reporting
|
|
Heard
about government examining bank records of terrorist suspects
|
|
|
Total |
Rep |
Dem |
Ind |
|
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
|
A
lot |
24 |
29 |
23 |
22 |
|
A
little |
47 |
47 |
48 |
47 |
|
Nothing
at all |
29 |
24 |
29 |
31 |
|
In reporting
this story, did news organizations
...Help
or hurt the interests of the American people? |
|
Helped
|
34 |
17 |
46 |
38 |
|
Hurt
|
50 |
69 |
38 |
44 |
|
No
effect/Dont know |
16 |
14 |
16 |
18 |
|
...Tell the American people something they
|
|
Should
know about |
65 |
45 |
82 |
63 |
|
Didnt
need to know |
28 |
47 |
12 |
31 |
|
Dont
know |
7 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
But by a similar margin (52% to 40%) these same
respondents felt that journalists should always dig hard to get all the
information they can for their reports rather than trust government and
military officials if they refuse to release information.
Americans age 65 and older are the most concerned
about the potential harm caused by press revelations of the government's
program. By nearly three-to-one (58% to 20%) older Americans believe the
reporting hurt, not helped, America's interests. They are also the most
likely to say that this was information that the American people did not
need to know about.
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