When I think of comparing journalists and used car salesmen, the first image that comes to my mind is painted within the pages of Roald Dahl's popular children's book "Matilda."

Matilda's father is a money-hungry used car salesman who salivates at the thought of a sale. He fills the tanks of his cars with sawdust – a practice that affords him the ability to wave the piece off the lot before it breaks down. He's painted as an unreasonable villain hated by the reader, even by his own daughter.

This image is not far from popular thought. Many used car salesmen are known for their tactics of selling off products that, more often than not, break soon after.  

Although news does break, it's obvious the public doesn't distrust journalists because we sell a product that doesn't perform. Instead, I think citizens are drawing a comparison with how we sell a product. 

In the same poll, while Americans ranked journalists only slightly better than used car salesmen, they also ranked journalists at, almost the level of politicians.

Popular opinion says used car salesmen lie in order to influence others, with the hope of turning a profit, while politicians first turn a profit by promising to influence others. Journalists are crammed in the middle, a hum of hope and subtle desperation in our voices as we yell up toward the front, "Are we there yet!?"

I'm an aspiring journalist. But when my mother asked me at age seven what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn't say, "I want to be a self-seeking puppet whose pen-holding, puppet fingers are manipulated by the powerful."  I just simply said, "I want to be a journalist."

When my mother asked me at age seven what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn't say, "I want to be a self-seeking puppet whose pen-holding, puppet fingers are manipulated by the powerful."  I just simply said, "I want to be a journalist."A teller of the truth, an informer of the facts, a voice of the unvoiced, an eye on the elite, a protector of civil liberties, a masterpiece of freedom in my female frame – that's what journalism came to represent to me. That's what journalism still represents to me. We can't have a democracy without an informed public.

But despite the pride I find in my chosen profession, I can't ignore the truth of how people view journalists. I also can't ignore the fact that, in a lot of ways, I agree with them.

We are like used car salesmen in that we speculatively focus on some issues and facts, while ignoring others that may damage our profit potential – a potential based on advertising revenue. 

We are like politicians because the advertisements that fund us represent big business. We are aware advertiser money is in our pockets. If you think that doesn't influence what gets printed, you may lack a logical thought process.

The whole scenario makes me recall my favorite topical comic, Lewis Black, who said of politicians accepting campaign donations, "If big oil gave anybody in this room 31 million bucks, you'd be THRILLED to be big oil's bitch."

And on a different scale, this is true of media. 

Jeff Gerstmann, the former editorial director for the Web site GameSpot was fired after giving a relatively low review score to "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men." He was fired for giving his honest opinion; he gave a low score to a game advertised on the site. 

Although nothing is confirmed, it's been said that Eidos, the affected advertising company, pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in future advertising from the site.  CNET, the Web site's parent company, got spooked, fired Gerstmann and removed the post. It seems the lines are being blurred between the duty to inform and the power to influence.

So, I understand the results of the Gallup poll. If A+B=C and media need money to exist and advertisers provide that money, then media is, on some scale, an arm of advertising –  but not all media.

A study done by the Program of International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that the frequency of American misconceptions on current issues varied significantly based on where Americans got their news. 

Three questions were asked pertaining to three common misconceptions. The news sources that ranked highest on public understanding of the actual facts were National Public Radio and PBS.  Some 77 percent of those who seek out these public programs for their news did not have the misconceptions. Both are non-commercial.

My parents make fun of me for listening to NPR. My father says, if it were any more entertaining, it would put him into a coma. But news isn't supposed to be entertaining. 

Although this is a rough comparison, journalists being like used car salesmen and politicians hints at the idea that we can sell and are able to be bought. Informing the public is too serious a role to be attached to a price tag. 

So tune into our public programs. What they may lack in entertainment, they make up for in more in-depth information.