Trust Issues

Matt Drudge's Drudge Report links to a Washington Examiner article reporting a Harvard study of attitudes of millennials toward various societal institutions. The young don't have a lot of trust.

They were asked "How often do you trust each of them to do the right thing?" Respondents were given four choices: Always, Most of the time, Sometimes, or Never. Those replying Sometimes or Never are listed below for each institution.

Scientists                                44%
The United States military      46%
Your local police department  50%
Supreme Court                       58%
United Nations                        62%
President Obama                    63%
Your local government            67%
Your state government            69%
Federal government                74%
Congress                                 82%
Wall Street                               86%
The media                                88%

In the school's Institute of Politics poll of over 3,000 18-29-year-olds, a tiny 12 percent said they believe the media do the right thing. A whopping 88 percent said "sometimes" or "never." Just 2 percent said they trusted the media to do the right thing "all of the time," and 39 percent said "never."

Perhaps we don't respect the views of millennials as much as we should? If I were a millennial I'd look at those numbers and conclude I shouldn't risk a career in journalism.