A new poll from Zogby Analytics shows that the big three networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) and the top three newspapers (The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post) are less trusted than ever. The poll shows that for the first time, more voters distrust them than trust them. Bias, activism - and now, being paid off - if they aren't at the root of the problem, are only adding to it.

The bias of course, is part of a longstanding trend. We all know the media is leftwing. They take money from the Clinton Foundation, hire leftwing political operatives as supposedly objective hosts and commentators, ignore important stories, refuse to ask certain questions and don't even try to hide it anymore. It's why stories single sides of issues are the dominant 'narrative,' and activists are having a field day. The perception that Donald Trump was not getting a fair shake from the media is one reason why many voters pulled the lever for Trump. Last September, the Media Research Center found that 91% of the press coverage of Trump was full-blown negative. No matter what Trump did, the leftists ruling the mainstream press didn't like it.

According to a Washington Times report:

“Analyzing the networks’ spin makes it clear that the goal of all of this heavy coverage is not to promote the President, but to punish him,” the analysts said.

From this base of the issue, the problem has moved one step further, with reports of journalists getting paid to push certain stories, from firms with deep ties to the press such as Fusion GPS. That's the "opposition research" firm which took big dollars from the Democratic Party, compiled a phony dossier about Donald Trump, and then sold it to the press, using the news hook that then-FBI Director James Comey had viewed the dossier to get reporters to report it. Now, it comes to light from the House Intelligence Committee that they maybe even paying off reporters.

The House committee is trying to get to the bottom of this corruption as news filters out that Fusion GPS principal Glenn Simpson has cut a deal to testify before the committee on his role in creating and disseminating the dossier. It's not know just yet if that will include opening its books on how many journalists it covertly paid off to write stories under the flag of their supposedly legitimate news organizations.

It ought to bother major news organizations that there could be journalists on their staffs whose scoops and whose supposedly orginal reportings are really just disguised disinformation from the Democrats who pay Fusion GPS.

Thus far, it's unknown how the Big Media honchos feel about such a report, but combined with the poll showing widespread public distrust with the media and now upcoming possible revelations about a paid off press, they ought to be concerned. Trust is the hallmark of their product and now it's been shaken to its foundation. There are signs at least some of them are concerned, given that it has potential to affect the bottom line. And in many press outlets, it actually has.

You'd think they'd want to know if any of their reporters are taking payoffs from Fusion GPS or other smear outfits just like them. It's in the public interest, and it's one thing that could reveal to the public whether their reports are to be trusted or not. Thus far, there's just silence.