The only possible surprise in this story is the possibility that it could surprise anyone at all.

Americans’ distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Distrust is up from the past few years, when Americans were already more negative about the media than they had been in years prior to 2004.

Let’s look at a couple of reasons for this distrust. NBC is a good place to go.

This week, an old audio tape of Barack Obama surfaced. On that tape, he said that he believes in the distribution of wealth. Rather than play that audio, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell claimed that it had not been “authenticated.” So she didn’t play it for several hours, until they came up with a longer version of the tape. By that point, the White House had already acknowledged that the voice on the tape was that of the president, and he had said what he said. On Twitter, NBC’s Chuck Todd would approvingly re-tweet a Slate story by Tim Noah dismissing the “redistribution” remark as something both Obama and Romney believe in. NBC/MSNBC didn’t slow down to “authenticate” the Romney “47 percent” tape, though, despite the questionable edit that comes directly after Romney makes his controversial remark.

By the way, just how controversial was it to say that government dependence is too high and distorts our politics? To the MSM it was a game-changer, but to 64% of Americans it was reasonable and they agreed with it.

But getting back to the Obama “redistribution” tape. Waiting for authentication was an interesting take, coming from a woman who’s show literally manufactured a “gaffe” from a Mitt Romney appearance a few months back. In that appearance, Romney compared the sandwich ordering touchscreen systems at WaWa convenience stores to the inefficiency of government services. Mitchell turned that moment into “Isn’t Mitt out of touch for not understanding those touchscreens!” Mitchell’s producers had to deceptively edit Romney’s soundbite to make their point. Later, they had to apologize for getting caught.

NBC was also behind the false claim that Florida night watchman George Zimmerman targeted Trayvon Martin because he was black. NBC deceptively edited Zimmerman’s 9-11 call to make it sound as though he racially profiled Martin before killing him. That deceptive edit made it onto the Today show and stirred up a national fracas, and today Zimmerman stands trial based in part on NBC’s actions. The network confined its firings to low-level local employees, when the network’s New York producers put the false edit on the air. ABC News also aired a deceptive edit in connection with the shooting, manipulating surveillance video to conceal the wounds that Zimmerman suffered during his fight with Martin.

The multiple, compound errors all told one story, curiously enough: That George Zimmerman was guilty of murder, before he had even been charged.

Looking at more recent stories, the New York Times — alleged paper of record — didn’t even manage to get a story published on Libya in its print edition yesterday. At all. The paper got around to addressing the security scandal unfolding after that attack in the middle of the afternoon. Where did we learn the most useful facts about Libya? From blogs and the overseas media, not the US mainstream media. The US media was too busy blasting Romney for speaking up for the freedom of speech to report that Obama’s administration was and still is attacking free speech.

Related: A hot mic captured several so-called mainstream media reporters in cahoots to create a narrative regarding Mitt Romney’s statement about the attacks in Cairo as they unfolded.

After two awful weeks for Barack Obama that included his Democrats booing God, a terrible jobs report, terrorist attacks in the Middle East on 9-11, and administration spin about those attacks that no one believes, the media would have you know that Mitt Romney has had a terrible week.

Do you want to talk polls? MSM outfits routinely oversample Democrats in their polling, report what they have found with their thumbs in the scale as “news,” all to push a narrative that Obama is winning and Romney is hopelessly losing. Do you want to talk issues? Try finding a fair and factual story on any of the following issues: abortion, same-sex marriage, religious liberties, Mormons, Muslims, evangelicals or just about any other social issue. In the MSM, abortion is always good, everyone supports ssm, none of Obama’s policies have negatively impacted religious liberties, Mormons and evangelicals are always suspect while Muslims are always given the benefit of the doubt. Even when they’re proven mouthpieces for our enemies, like CAIR, the Muslim group that the MSM routinely quotes as benign when they’re the smiley face glued onto the global jihad.

Media malpractice is a never ending story, but I’ll stop ranting there.

The bottom line is, if you distrust the mainstream media, it’s because you’ve been paying attention.