A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and published Sept. 19 found that most Americans lack confidence in people in positions of power to behave .
"Notable shares of the public give people in these powerful jobs low ratings when it comes to behaving ethically, dealing with ethical problems in their ranks and admitting mistakes," the Pew Research Center reported.
Americans were also found to think those in authority are unlikely to face consequences when committing unethical acts.
University of Memphis journalism professor Joe Hayden said skepticism of high-ranking officials is not new in America.
"Americans have always viewed public officials with a little bit of skepticism, and it might be because of our unique history as a country," Hayden said. "Even European observers noticed and remarked on the fact that we were surprisingly egalitarian as a society."
Hayden said the upsurge in distrust of public officials is different from traditional American dissent. He also said it is unfair that advantages in politics are rattling the relationship between Americans and their leaders.
"Money in politics made it even harder for new people, new challengers and young people to replace incumbents who'd been in office for a long time," Hayden said. "It gives big organizations and wealthy and powerful individuals a lot more of a voice than you and me."
The Pew Research Center reported that members of Congress received low ratings for empathy and transparency, with 5% of participants saying members of congress care about others or people like themselves. Local government officials performed better compared to Congress members at 14%. The survey also said varying differences in opinions on journalists among partisans and right-leaning Americans had more negative opinions of journalists than left-leaning.
Pew Research Center reported, "About three-quarters of Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic party (74%) say journalists cover all sides of an issue fairly at least some of the time, but just three-in-ten (31%) Republicans and Republican leaders say the same – a 43-percentage-point difference in opinion between the two groups."
Hayden said that attacks from politicians, particularly Republicans, have fueled distrust of the media.
"I think on the right; you see this trend over the last maybe 40 years to start blaming the media for everything," Hayden said. "I think in the process of bashing the media and blaming the press for everything, they've ended up undermining confidence in what journalists do."
Hayden said the disparaging of mainstream media has led to the spread of misinformation, which could be confusing to people.
"The right has denigrated the mainstream media so much that it's almost like anything goes now," Hayden said.
Wynter McKinney, a criminology and psychology major, said that she finds congress members less relateable compared to local government officials.
"Local officials better understand the problems that affect our communities as opposed to Congress because they are in a different economic class," McKinney said. "Congress can't relate to us, so their regulations don't benefit us; it benefits them."
