Industry Credibility: When is an Oil Executive Like a Congressman Who Says the Young Woman is Just a Close Family Friend?

Reality TV shows would be the survivor in a credibility contest with the Congressman and the oil executive. When Americans hear "a reality TV show like Survivor claims the winner is determined by a vote among the contestants, with no pressure or influence exerted by the show's producers," only 44% have serious doubts, although 38% have some doubts, and just 14% have no real doubts.

In the area of food safety, when it comes to the reassurances of a government official on the safety of genetically engineered food products, about half (51%) report only some doubts, with few expressing serious doubts (28%) OR no doubts at all (20%).

Research Credibility: When is Stem Cell Research Like Star Wars?

From the promise of stem cell research to the effectiveness of missile defenses, when it comes to complicated science and engineering issues in public policy, the public appears ready to give the experts the benefit of the doubt. In each case, about half express no real doubts that the experts will succeed in what they say they can do, and half do have doubts (although very few express serious doubts).

For complete tables please download the PDF, Media Release and Tables

Job Performance: Public Split on Bush Performance Overall; A Toxic Reaction to Bush's Performance on the Environment. How Does the Performance of Congress Compare?

President Bush earns roughly 50-50 ratings for his job performance. Along with ambivalence there is a lack of passion in the public's ratings. Most ratings cluster near the middle of the scale (he's doing good, but not excellent, or he's doing only fair but not poor).

Taxes are Bush's strong point, with the overall balance of opinion positive as 56% rate his performance on taxes to be excellent or good. These surveys were conducted before most Americans received a tax rebate check.

Bush gets just average scores on defense and education, and below average scores (lower than his overall job performance ratings) on foreign policy and the economy. The environment is Bush's downfall. Americans hold a decisively negative impression of Bush's handling of environmental issues--34% positive and 61% negative. The environment is the only issue on which a significant proportion of Americans express strong negative feelings about Bush's performance (on the environment, 30% rate Bush's performance as poor).

Congress gets lower scores. The image of Congress is very faint. Few Americans have strong impressions one way or the other about Congress, but the balance of opinion overall for Congress rates lower than Bush's ratings overall or on any particular issue except one. The public feels Congress is performing its duties overall about as well as Bush is handling the environment--not well.

Political Credibility: When is the Democratic Patient's Bill of Rights Like the Republican Patient's Bill of Rights, and Vice Versa?

After months of a stand-off in Washington between competing plans being promoted under the broad banner of a Patient's Bill of Rights, all that has resulted is public confusion. Almost half of all Americans have some doubts about each plan, about one-quarter have serious doubts, and about one-quarter have no real doubts in each case. Neither side has the upper hand when it comes to using the differences in the competing Patient's Bill of Rights approaches to gain a partisan political advantage.

Of Course Cal Ripkin Really Did It

Americans are not so cynical when it comes to sports heroes doing heroic things. Most believe the story of Cal Ripken's success at this year's baseball All Star game rings true, and fewer than 1-in-10 skeptics express serious doubts about it.

Trust Trends: The Losers are HMOs, the Media, Wall Street and Business, But the Computer and Internet Industries Hold Their Own on Trust; Trust in Honesty and Integrity of President is Up, Compared with 5 Years Ago

Managed health care continues to plumb new depths of public skepticism, with 3-in-5 Americans saying they have less trust in health insurance plans and HMOs than they did five years ago.

The bad news media and two of its biggest sources of bad news (the declining averages on the stock market and the growing number of businesses and major corporations announcing layoffs) are also targets of skepticism. In each case, the public is more than 4 times more likely to say their trust is declining rather than increasing compared to five years ago. Ironically, the big exception is the sector that is among the worst of performers recently--the computer and Internet industries.

Pundits predicted the U.S. Supreme Court's image would be tarnished by its involvement in the election of George W. Bush. Others have said the public would not believe some of the too-good-to-be-true stories coming out of sports, and begin to doubt the integrity of major sports events (were they being scripted to make for a better story for television?) While neither is gaining in trust, most people say their level of trust in the Supreme Court, and in the integrity of major sports events, is not much different today than it was five years ago.

A lot of Americans (41%) say they have more trust in the honesty and integrity of President Bush than they did in the President when Bill Clinton held the office five years ago. That is far more than report increasing trust in any other institution. A significant minority (32% of all Americans, and 50% of Democrats) say they have less trust in the honesty and integrity of President Bush compared to Clinton.

Ipsos-Reid has been tracking public opinion around the world for more than 20 years and has become a leading provider of research and advisory services to private, public, and not-for-profit organizations in over 50 countries. It is a member of the Paris-based Ipsos Group, ranked among the top ten research groups in the world.

For more information please contact:

Thomas Riehle Telephone: 202-463-7300 Email: thomas.riehle@ipsos-reid.com