Journalists rank low in ethics survey

NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Journalists are low scorers once again in the annual Gallup survey on how the U.S. public ranks various professions in terms of honesty and ethics.

For the eighth straight year nurses top the list with 84 percent of those surveyed giving the nursing profession "very high" or "high" marks for ethics, Editor and Publisher reports.

Journalists received "high" or "very high" marks from just 26 percent of respondents putting them ahead of business executives, lawyers, stockbrokers, car salesmen, congressmen and senators.

Dividing respondents by political party, Democrats rated the honesty of journalists higher than Republicans, 36 percent to 17 percent.