Readers Put More Trust In Local News Products Than National, Study Says
- by Ray Schultz , February 21, 2023
Americans have a dismal view of the national news media.
Only 26% have a favorable opinion, and 53% have an unfavorable one, according to American Views 2022: Part 2, a Gallup/Knight Foundation study released last week.
And while 72% say national news organizations have the resources to report accurately, only 35% believe they are delivering information readers need.
Perhaps worse, while 35% feel national news providers care about the impact of their reporting on American society, only 23% believe they have the best interests of their audience at heart.
Local news providers fare better: 44% have high trust in them, while 31% have moderate trust and 18% have low trust. And 8% have no opinion.
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What’s more, 53% agree that local news providers care about how their reporting affects the community, and 52% believe these outlets deliver the information they need.
In contrast, 21% have high trust in national news organizations, while 33% have moderate trust, 41% have low trust and 5% have no opinion.
Why this lack of trust? For one thing, 44% of readers see a great deal of political bias in news coverage, up from 45% in 2019-2020 and 45% in 2017. And, 34% see a fair amount of bias, the new survey found.
Perhaps most alarmingly, 62% of political independents see a great deal of bias -- a 12% leap from 2019-2020. Meanwhile, 33% of Democrats see a great deal of bias versus 27% in 2019-2020 and 26% in 2017.
Of those who get most of their news online, 47% have low emotional trust in national news organizations, versus 15% who have high trust.
The results are based on a Gallup survey of 5,593 Americans conducted between May 31 and July 21, 2022.
If the various local TV stations in each market decided to copy America's leading 24/7 "cable News"channels and took very hard positions overtly favoring the left or right---as is the case with MSNBC and Fox ----with CNN joining in at times---- as well as smaller, harder edged outlets like NewsMax,and if they constantly bashed eachother about this, you can rest assured that after a while these kinds of studies in would begin to show a major drop in the credibility and "trust" that people have in local news.
The fact is that The Right has sold the idea that the national news media are not to be trusted and are open supporters of "the enemy"---the Dems---while many people whose sympthies lie with The Left feel the same way about news channels that are sharply supportive of their "enemy"---The Right. Put these together and it's no surprise that upwards of 60% of the respondents will say the national TV news is not trustworthy. But do they really mean those "news" channels that they watch? Not likely. What they mean is those channels that they don't watch---or almost never watch---because of their assumed bias against what the respondent thinks he/she believes.
If these studies asked people about specific news shows---the nightly news on each TV network, , the various cable commentaries, the weekend political interviews, primetime newsmags like ""60 Minutes", the election night coverage, the "Today Show" or "Good Morning America" and their counterparts on other channels, etc. etc. and determined which ones each respondent watched and how often, you would get a much more interesting set of data to ponder. But ask the question in a broad, sweeping manner---as if all of these "news" shows are the same and you get a highly impressionistic---"they are all bad"---- answer from most fans of the Dems and the GOP. Yep,they are all untrustworthy---or are they?