MEDIA TRUST BUST

Faith in news just 7%

Americans’ overall trust in the media is at its lowest point since 2016, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday.

The survey found that just 36 percent say they have either a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly,” down four percentage points from 2020 and half of the record-high figure from more than four decades ago. Just 7 percent said they have a “great deal” of trust and confidence in newspapers, television and radio, while 29 percent said they have a “fair amount.”

The only year with less support was 2016, when 32 percent of Americans said they trusted the mass media a great deal or a fair amount. Meanwhile, more than a third of Americans — 34 percent — said in the latest poll that they trust the media “none at all” and 29 percent said they have “not very much” faith in the press.

Gallup initially asked Americans about their trust in the media between 1972 and 1976. During that period, confidence in the press fluctuated between 68 percent and 72 percent.

When Gallup restarted polling on the issue in 1997, the percentage who trusted the media a great deal or a fair amount had dropped to 53 percent. The number rose to 55 percent in 1999, but has not reached that level since. The last time even 50 percent of Americans expressed confidence in the media was in 2005.

Like much else, the media issue is politically polarized, with 68 percent of Democrats, 11 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of independents saying they trust the press a great deal or a fair amount.

Democrats’ trust in the media peaked in 2018 at 76 percent, Republicans’ in 1998 at 52 percent and independents’ in 2003 at 53 percent.

The poll surveyed 1,005 adults between Sept. 1 and 17. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.