American Trust in Media Approaches All-Time Low: Poll

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A new poll found that American public trust in the media continues to decline and has nearly reached a record low.

Gallup released a study they conducted in early September with two sample populations totaling 1,005 adults and a confidence level of approximately 95 percent. The data they gathered shows that only 36 percent of Americans say they trust the media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.

Breaking down the numbers, only 7 percent of participants said they trust the media a “great deal,” and 29 percent said they giver the media a “fair amount” of trust. Meanwhile 29 percent of polled adults say they give “not very much” trust to the press, and 34 percent say they give “none at all.”

The 36 percent rate for media trust is the 2nd lowest result Gallup has ever seen, only surpassed by the 32 percent rate they recorded during the 2016 election. Gallup noted that trust in the media was on the rise back in 2018 while former President Donald Trump was under constant press scrutiny, but the numbers have kept slipping downward since then.

From Gallup’s Megan Brenan:

These findings, from a Sept. 1-17 poll, are the latest in Gallup’s tracking of the public’s confidence in key U.S. institutions, which began in 1972. Between 1972 and 1976, 68% to 72% of Americans expressed trust in the mass media; yet, by 1997, when the question was next asked, trust had dropped to 53%. Trust in the media, which has averaged 45% since 1997, has not reached the majority level since 2003.

Democrats and Independents are apparently still more likely to trust the media than conservatives. The poll found that 68 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Independents gave an approving answer when asked for their level of trust in the media, whereas only 11 percent of Republicans said the same.