Distrust of News Media Hits Record High

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Fewer Americans trust the news media than at any other time in recent history, according to a new Gallup poll. It found that 60% of respondents said they “have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.” That compares to 40% who said they trust the news media a “great deal or fair amount.”
 
The proportion of Americans who said they distrust the news media -- including newspapers, TV and radio -- is up from 57% in 2010 and 52% in 2007, according to Gallup.

The proportion of Americans who say they trust the news media is down from a high of 72% in the 1970s, when national news organizations burnished their credibility with reporting on Vietnam and Watergate.
 
Gallup also found that diverging views regarding the credibility of news media have a strongly partisan flavor, with Republicans and independents much more apt to express doubt than Democrats. Just 26% of Republicans and 31% of independents surveyed said they had a great deal or fair amount of trust in the news media, down from 38% for both groups in 2011. For Democrats, the percentage was 58% this year, up from 56% last year.
 
However, over the long term, all three groups have seen their trust in the news media decline to varying degrees.

In 2002, 52% of independents and 49% of Republicans said they had a great deal or fair amount of trust in the news media, while the proportion of Democrats saying the same thing peaked at 70% in 2005. For Democrats and independents, the proportion expressing trust in the news media has declined more or less steadily in subsequent years; interestingly, the proportion of Republicans expressing trust in the news media actually rebounded (temporarily) from a low of 27% in 2008 to 36% in 2009 and 38% in 2011 before sinking to an all-time low of 26% today.
 
During an election year, growing distrust in the news media has translated into less attention given to political news in particular: just 39% of those surveyed said they are paying close attention to political news this year, down from 43% in September 2008.

Despite their distrust of the news media, Republicans are actually more likely to pay close attention to news about national politics than Democrats, at 48% versus 39%; just 33% of independents said they were paying close attention to political news.

Gallup surveyed 1,017 U.S. adults from Sept. 6-9.

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1 comment on "Distrust of News Media Hits Record High".

1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston
   

   commented on: September 25, 2012 at 11:33 a.m.
   Maybe there'd be more trust if the news cycle for any given political scandal was standardized, so that so many minutes or inches would cover the story over so many days, counteracting the perceived imbalance in attention.

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