75% Say Americans Getting Ruder, Is the Media Responsible?

A just-released Rasmussen survey found 75 percent of respondents believe Americans are getting ruder and more uncivilized.

If this is true, is it being caused by a downturn in the economy that clearly has made the public uneasy for obvious reasons, or are citizens just mimicking the caustic tone they've seen from political leaders the past couple of years as well as that exhibited by prominent media members?

After all, there's been a certain Jerry Springer-like offensiveness on display in the nation's capital since George W. Bush was first inaugurated, and the press have been quite in lockstep.

Given the Bush Derangement Syndrome the country witnessed -- especially after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans four years ago -- as well as the way a supposedly impartial media viciously attacked former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin from the moment she was announced as John McCain's running mate, and how average Americans protesting at Tea Parties and town hall meetings have been disgracefully disparaged in recent months, is it any wonder Rasmussen Reports found the following:

Seventy-five percent (75%) of adults say Americans are becoming ruder and less civilized, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Just 10% say Americans are becoming kinder and gentler instead, while 15% are not sure.

Women under the age of 40 feel more strongly than any other age group that Americans are becoming ruder and less civilized. But overwhelmingly in every demographic category, Americans say the behavior of their fellow countrymen is coarsening.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans say they have had to confront someone because of his or her rude behavior in public. But 45% say they’ve never had to do that.

By 11 points, men are more likely than women to have confronted a person who is being rude in public. Those ages 18 to 29 are far more likely to have done so than those who are older.

If it's acceptable for media members to disgustingly use -- ON AIR, no less!!! -- a sexual term to refer to folks who don't agree with the President's agenda, is any of this at all surprising?

The behavior of so-called journalists in the past few years has been increasingly ruder and less civilized.

Should we at all be shocked the population is mimicking it?