One of America’s most-trusted polling firms finds Americans’ trust in the mainstream media has plunged to its lowest point in over 50 years.
“Americans’ confidence in the mass media has edged down to a new low, with just 28% expressing a ‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’ of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This is down from 31% last year and 40% five years ago,” reports Gallup, which has polled and tracked Americans’ trust in the media since 1972.
“Meanwhile, seven in 10 U.S. adults now say they have ‘not very much’ confidence (36%) or ‘none at all; (34%),” Gallup adds.
“When Gallup began measuring trust in the news media in the 1970s, between 68% and 72% of Americans expressed confidence in reporting. However, by the next reading in 1997, public confidence had fallen to 53%. Media trust remained just above 50% until it dropped to 44% in 2004, and it has not risen to the majority level since. The highest reading in the past decade was 45% in 2018, which came just two years after confidence had collapsed amid the divisive 2016 presidential campaign,” Gallup adds.
“The latest 28% confidence reading, from a Sept. 2-16 poll, marks the first time the measure has fallen below 30%,” Gallup notes.
Gallup once again found Americans’ views on the media differ sharply depending on their political orientation, but even increased numbers of Democrats now appear fed up with media outlets largely seen as liberal.
Gallup finds:
* Republicans’ confidence, which hasn’t risen above 21% since 2015, has dropped to single digits (8%) for the first time in the trend.
* Independents’ trust has not reached the majority level since 2003, and the latest 27% reading matches last year’s historical low.
* For Democrats, the narrowest of majorities (51%) now express trust in the media, which is a repeat of the low previously seen in 2016.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Been fake since Trumps first term & all during Covid Wuhan plague