Americans With ‘No Trust’ in Media Hits Record High

For the first time, the percentage of Americans with no trust in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined, according to a Gallup poll

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Americans’ distrust in the media is at a record high, as for the first time ever, the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage of those with a great deal or fair amount combined, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Gallup

Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” is almost unchanged from last year at 34%, just two points higher than the lowest Gallup ever recorded in 2016 during the presidential campaign.

Only 7% of American adults have a great deal of trust and confidence in newspapers, TV and radio news, while 27% have a fair amount. Of those surveyed, 28% don’t have much confidence in media, while 38% have none at all.

Americans’ trust in media remains divided along party lines, with 70% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans saying they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence. This double-digit gap between the two political parties has been present since 2001.

Though the margin jumped 10 percentage points in 2020, this is the third straight year a majority of Republicans revealed their distrust for mainstream media organizations, according to Gallup. And at 27%, independents’ confidence is at the lowest point in the trend. In fact, this is also the first time that it has fallen below 30%.

This current amount of distrust in the media follows Gallup’s historically low confidence in both TV news and newspapers in June as well as a new record low in December’s annual rating of television reporters’ honesty and ethics.

The poll was conducted from Sept. 1 to Sept. 16, surveyed 812 adults and had a margin of error of four percentage points.

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