Iowa’s financial press has grown more wary of business executives over the past two years, a new survey shows.

Specifically, editors and reporters at radio and television stations and newspapers are more likely to claim that they have been lied to or misled by business executives than they were two years ago, when a similar study was conducted, according to Hanser & Associates, a West Des Moines-based public relations firm, which conducted both surveys. The so-called Business:Media Index is the only one of its kind in Iowa measuring perceptions of both the media and business.

The results provide the first tangible glimpse into how much damage the financial scandals of the past two years, including the collapse of Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc.’s bankruptcy, might have created when it comes to faith and trust in business. Though few, if any, Iowa companies have been embroiled in large-scale criminal activity in the past two years, the study suggests that business leaders here are being regarded with the same general mistrust that has strained relations between businesses and the press and public across the country in recent years.

For instance, when asked the question, “Do you think a business leader has ever lied to you or knowingly misled you?” 66 percent of the journalists who responded said yes, 23 percentage points higher than when the survey was last done.

By contrast, not one business executive who responded acknowledged having “lied to the media or knowingly misled a reporter,” the same result as two years ago.

“There’s a serious disconnect,” said Ronald Hanser, president of Hanser & Associates.

In 2001, 90 percent of the state’s financial journalists who responded said they trusted Iowa’s business leaders. In the most recent survey, 78 percent of reporters and editors said they did. Fifty-five percent of business leaders said they trusted the media, statistically unchanged from the 2001 study.

To create the Business:Media Index, Hanser surveyed executives at the 526 largest companies in Iowa and 204 members of the state’s media that produce daily stories related to business. The survey was conducted in July via e-mail and fax.

Among businesses, 19 percent of executives who received the survey participated, creating a margin of error of plus or minus 7.7 percent with 90 percent certainty. On the media side, 21 percent responded, resulting in a margin of error of plus or minus 11.3 percent at a 90 percent confidence level.

Hanser compiled its list of companies to survey with help from the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.

The survey results contain other interesting nuggets. Sixty-nine percent of business leaders said the media do not scrutinize companies enough, while 83 percent of journalists felt they watched Iowa’s companies pretty closely. Both executives and reporters and editors agreed that the state’s financial press needs better training when it comes to covering business issues, though the media think they’re getting better.

Fully 76 percent of executives who responded agreed with the statement, “Do you agree or disagree that reporters don’t have sufficient backgrounds or educations in economics, accounting or other business concepts to cover business issues.” Sixty-four percent of journalists who responded agreed with that statement. Two years ago, 76 percent of reporters and editors said they didn’t think the press had enough training.