In what can only be taken as a sign of these sorry times, a recent survey by Sacred Heart University found that Fox News was simultaneously the most trusted and the least trusted news organization in America.

When researchers asked which national television news organization respondents trusted most for accurate reporting, Fox News was named by 30 percent of all respondents — up from 19.5 percent in 2003 and 27 percent in 2007.

The news organizations ranked as most trusted for accurate reporting included Fox News (30 percent), CNN (19.5 percent), NBC News (7.5 percent) and ABC News (7.5 percent). The least-trusted organizations were Fox News (26.2 percent), followed by NBC News (9.9 percent), MSNBC (9.4 percent), CNN (8.5 percent), CBS News (5.3 percent) and ABC News (3.7 percent)

It makes one wonder who these respondents were and what they’d been smoking:

Researchers asked respondents for their perceptions of political leanings of various news sources. The Daily Show/Colbert Report was viewed, by a six-to-one margin, as mostly or somewhat liberal over mostly or somewhat conservative. By nearly five-to-one margins, respondents see “news media journalists and broadcasters,” the New York Times and MSNBC as mostly or somewhat liberal over those that see them as mostly or somewhat conservative.

Fox News is viewed as mostly or somewhat conservative over mostly or somewhat liberal by a four-to-one margin. And, by approximately three-to-one margins, CNN and USA Today are viewed as mostly or somewhat liberal over mostly or somewhat conservative. The Wall Street Journal is viewed as more conservative by a two-to-one margin while National Public Radio is viewed as more liberal by the same margin

I mean could these people have been sober if 15 percent of them thought The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert were “somewhat conservative” and 25 percent thought Fox News is “somewhat liberal?”

Oh, wait! Now I remember — we all live in an idiocracy ….