Commentary

Republicans Drive Erosion Of News Media 'Credibility'

by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, April 10, 2019

The perceived credibility of the major U.S. news organizations has been trending downward since the 2016 election, but most of it has been driven by sentiment from Republican voters.

According to the latest tracking from Morning Consult, the share of Americans rating the nine leading print and electronic media news outlets as credible has dropped an average of five percentage points over the past three years.

Most of that came from Republicans, whose credibility rating dropped an average of 12 percentage points over the same period.

“The New York Times and CNN, two of [President] Trump’s favorite rhetorical punching bags, have suffered the largest drops in credibility among Republicans,” the report notes, adding that, “In the months following the 2016 presidential election, most members of the Grand Old Party thought the New York Times (52 percent) and CNN (51 percent) had credibility; those figures have since dropped by roughly 20 points, with 32 percent of Republicans now saying each outlet is trustworthy.”

4 comments about "Republicans Drive Erosion Of News Media 'Credibility'".

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James Smith from J. R. Smith Group, April 11, 2019 at 4:48 a.m.
Joe, I wonder how much of the credibility drops simply have to do with the fact that news viewers tend to be older. As I recall you (MP) noted the rise in NYT digital success, roughly over the same period. (Leaving the confirmation bias issue aside, for the moment.)
Reply

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., April 11, 2019 at 7:16 a.m.

@James Smith: It could be, but I don't think this survey indicates that, because the data was "weighted to approximate a target sample based on age, race/ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, and region."

Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, April 11, 2019 at 8:49 a.m.

Let's see how much play the impending indictment of Greg Craig gets in the East Coast newspapers over the next two weeks.

Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., April 11, 2019 at 9:03 a.m.

@Douglas Ferguson: I'm guessing you don't read them, so pasting for your convenience:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/us/politics/ex-obama-counsel-expects-to-be-charged-soon-in-mueller-related-case.html

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2019/04/10/lawyers-ex-obama-white-house-counsel-craig-expects-charges

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gregory-craig-ex-obama-white-house-counsel-expects-to-be-charged-in-relation-to-ukrainian-work-with-manafort-his-lawyers-say/2019/04/10/9c0e0b32-4c04-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-obama-white-house-counsel-expects-to-be-indicted-11554940801