This is NOT just another boring “no one trusts the news” post. First, I’m writing it. I may write stuff that you mistakenly believe is wrong, dumb, or even evil. But it’s never boring, if I may be allowed to insert an applause track here…
Nor is it boring because we’re all cheered by every poll that shows the trust needle moving lower and lower for the news media. If this keeps up, pollsters are going to have to invent a new way to measure failure, quantify awfulness, and calibrate disbelief.
Gallup does an annual survey of U.S. institutions, and guess what? Nobody trusts anyone anymore. And no one trusts newspapers or the media. Only 11 percent of those surveyed say they trust television news. It’s slightly better for newspapers—16 percent trust them.
Americans’ confidence in newspapers and television news has plummeted to an all-time low, according to the latest annual Gallup survey of trust in U.S. institutions.
Why it matters: The erosion of trust in media is one of the most significant signs of deepening polarization in America.
Political party affiliation has become the primary driver of opinions about the media’s trustworthiness, as Gallup has noted.
A 2021 poll from Pew Research Center found that Republicans are far less likely to trust media sources that are considered “mainstream.”
Details: Television news is today considered the second-least trusted institution in the country, following Congress, according to the poll.
While other institutions have also experienced precipitous declines, including banks and the medical system, others — like small business and the military — have held steady over the past few decades.
The top three institutions that Americans say they have the most trust in are small businesses, the military, and the police. For all the media abuse the police have taken, they only dropped six points, bringing them below the 50 percent line to 46 percent. But the police poll far better than your religion, which is at 37 percent.
As with everything else, the partisan divide in media trust is noticeable.
Story continues at: News not Trusted
