Over  the last couple of weeks a national poll revealed around 60% of  Americans have lost their faith in our journalistic organizations.

What  the Founding Fathers believed to be so important to our republic, our  representative democracy, has fallen from the perch it once set to the  level usually reserved only for politicians. The free press,  journalists, the 4th Estate, was believed by the Founding Fathers to be  so vital to our national foundation it was included in the 1st Amendment  along with freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

How far has the profession fallen?

I  once loved being counted among the ranks of reporters going out and  honestly, completely covering events of all natures. I held firm to the  creed that no matter our personal views a news report must above all  else remain objective. Sadly journalism has eroded to a point where  pundits, entertainers, comedians have usurped and corrupted what once  was a profession one longed to aspire.

Ratings  and personality are now the norm. Objectivity and letting the chips  fall where they may is considered bad form by many of the corporations  who now control what is no longer a free press. Campaigns, both  Democratic and Republican, demand editorial license over journalistic  content in direct opposition of the code, we as journalists once  cherished and held sacred.

Is  it any wonder then that while 60% of people have lost faith in the  press that almost the same number of Americans believe the nation is on  the wrong track?

That  percentage has come down some, but the most recent polls still have  well over half of all Americans believing the nation is headed the wrong  direction.

The  media by-and-large keep telling us that the economy is improving ever  so slightly. The media keeps saying there is light at the end of the  tunnel. Yet Americans are not buying it any more. Americans are  searching for the facts and truth for themselves. Americans have turned  off the television "news", unsubscribed from "news"papers and went  searching the internet to base their thoughts and opinions. Americans  are looking at their own circumstances, what is the state of their own  financial affairs, to determine the direction, the track of the nation  and whether it is right or wrong.

Then there is the paradox.

While  Americans are tuning out the press, journalists, talking heads, anchors  dressed up to look like actual news people, Americans are torn between  giving President Barack Obama a 2nd chance or hiring a new manager of  the economy. A small sliver nationwide divides the two presidential  candidates, Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Polls show anywhere from  1% to 5% difference across the country.

The  paradox is, with well over half the nation thinking that we are on the  wrong track, the race is so close. With well over half the nation  thinking we need to go a different path, many are thinking that they  would rather stay with the "devil we know" than the "devil we don't  know".

Are journalists to blame?

Are the news networks, the national news bureaus, part of the problem?

If  we as a people have lost our faith in a free press as envisioned and  elevated by the Founding Fathers, is this a sign of a nation nearing its  demise?

From  the Cornfield, on this Tuesday night in the last week of September with  only a week before the 1st presidential debate, just thoughts to ponder  and discuss.