Firing Line

Government and Public Confidence (9x4)

Air date: Jan 21, 1974

Senator Muskie's Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations had just commissioned the Lou Harris organization to conduct a poll on Americans' knowledge of and confidence in their country's institutions. The results on both counts were, as WFB relates them, pretty depressing. The bulk of the hour is spent--sometimes heatedly--analyzing the poll and debating how close it comes to reality.