NEW YORK, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The newscaster Americans trust the most
is Tom Brokaw (NBC News), closely followed in second place by Peter Jennings
(ABC News) and by Dan Rather (CBS News) in the third spot, according to a new
national media opinion survey conducted for the Council of Public Relations
Firms, the trade association for the public relations industry.
    Collectively, the three evening anchors were named most trusted by a total
of 50 percent of the 1,020 participants in nationally representative survey,
which was conducted for the Council by an independent research company.
    The respondents were asked: "When he was the CBS Evening News anchor,
Walter Cronkite was often called the must trusted man in America.  Which one
of today's television news personalities do you trust most?"

    THE RESULTS

    Tom Brokaw           19.1%
    Peter Jennings       16.2%
    Dan Rather           14.6%
    Diane Sawyer         7.7%
    Katie Couric         6.5%
    Ted Koppel           6.0%
    Larry King           4.8%
    Mike Wallace         4.6%

    The survey participants were then asked why that person merited their
trust and confidence:
    "We found that perceptions of favorable personal values and attributes,
primarily sincerity, honesty and candor, along with a likeable, down-to-earth
personality, are most important in establishing trust and credibility," said
Jack Bergen, president of the Council of Public Relations Firms.
    "In fact," Bergen noted, "33 percent base their news-viewing decisions on
personal qualities, followed by the 17 percent who place the most value on
presentation and delivery, and the 16 percent for whom a newscaster's
experience and knowledge are most important."
    He said the Council commissioned the survey to learn more about the way
Americans select and evaluate their prime sources of news and information.
    Bergen pointed out that public relations professionals are most concerned
about building and maintaining credibility for their clients, and the
trustworthiness of the media reporting about those clients is key to that
credibility.
    Do any of the three network evening news anchors have the audience and
extraordinary stature and influence that Walter Cronkite had in the 1960s and
70s?
    "No one today has anything like the impact he had on the nation," says
Bergen.  "And it's unlikely that anyone ever will.  During the Cronkite era,
there were only three national broadcast networks, no cable news networks and
the Internet didn't exist.  The proliferation of news outlets has changed the
information landscape, with the expanding menu of viewing choices reducing the
traditional broadcasts' audience share and influence."
    The survey was conducted for the Council of Public Relations Firms by
Bruskin Research, of Edison, New Jersey.
    The Council represents more than 125 of the leading U.S. firms, including
all of the top 10 and 80 percent of the top fifty firms.

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