Getting away from the explicit question of "believability," the networks are no longer seen as even doing the best job in their news coverage. A survey conducted in summer 2001 by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 56 percent of the public graded the broadcast news divisions an A or a B for their overall news coverage. Cable news, by contrast, was given an A or B by 67 percent of the public. The numbers for network news have changed little from a poll that asked the same question in 1995, when 57 percent of the public gave network news an A or B.⁶ [1]

Grading the Network News Organizations

Source: Pew Research Center

By many key traditional measures of journalistic quality - breadth of topics covered, comprehensiveness of sourcing, resources devoted to writing and editing - this study may lead people to conclude that the content of the networks' newscasts is superior to that of the cable networks. It is unclear whether people responding to the Pew surveys actually prefer the content of cable or like the convenience and immediacy of it and the fact that it comes from a source that is dedicated to the deliver of news and information exclusively.