Jared Gans, a writer for The Hill, a news and media website said in his January 10 column that, "members of Congress are perceived to have among the  lowest ethical standards of any occupation, according to a new Gallup poll."

Gans noted that, "the survey found 62 percent of respondents said  members of Congress have very low ethical standards, while 9 percent said they had very high or high standards....only telemarketers received a worse rating."

The Hill is an American newspaper and digital media company based in Washington D.C. that was founded in 1994 focusing on politics, policy and international relations with coverage of the U.S. Congress, the presidency and executive branch.

Gans pointed out in his column that, "Gallup surveyed respondents on their views on a total of 18 occupations, including high school teachers, police officers and journalists."

The Gallup poll noted that nurses received the highest score with, "79 percent saying they have very high ethical standards, followed by medical doctors and pharmacists."

The poll did find, "significant differences in the results  based on party for some occupations. 

Democrats were very more likely to say, "high school teachers, journalists and labor union leaders were ethical, while Republicans were very much more likely to view police officers as ethical."

Pollsters also found that, "Republican views of nurses, medical doctors and pharmacists are also somewhat worse than Democrats' views of people in those fields."

I believe Gallup polls are interesting and mostly factual.

Ed Townsend provides year around “Beyond The News”coverage in this column with over 60-years of photojournalism analysis and insight. The column can also be read on his Web blog at http://bght.blogspot.com