Americans hold military in highest esteem, journalists not so much

This is something that you have to read because it points out the total disconnect of the media and who Americans really value.

Survey: Americans hold military in highest esteem, clergy in middle, lawyers at bottom.

Military ranked the highest with 78 percent perceiving those in the armed services contributed a lot to society.

That was down from 84 percent in 2009. Teachers (72 percent), doctors (66 percent), scientists (65 percent) and engineers (63 percent) rounded out the top five.

The drop in how people feel about journalists shows people don't think they really do much for society. Do you think that could be because they do so little reporting on the members of the military and our veterans? I do. I have to track news reports across the country for Wounded Times. Most of the time I am shocked to discover a news report at a local level that used to make national news. Now it is almost as if the national news forgot they were supposed to be reporting on national news stories including the troops.

The decline in public esteem for journalists was most pronounced among women. Pew found about three-in-10 women (29 percent) say journalists contribute a lot to society’s well-being, down 17 percentage points from 46 percent in 2009. Pew also found that the drop in the perceived contributions by journalists cut across all age groups, education levels and partisan politics.

Clergy are not off the hook either. Far too many of them could be doing something for the veterans coming home from combat and their families but too few care enough to help them.

The poll of about 4,000 adults by the Pew Research Center also found that just 37 percent of the general public said clergy contribute "a lot" to society's well-being.

Amazing when you consider the best way to fight PTSD is spiritually but the number of suicides, attempted suicides, divorces and suffering goes up every year. Do you think journalists and members of the clergy will change now? I doubt it.