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More than seven in 10 Americans distrust the mainstream media, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday.
The survey found that only 28% of Americans expressed a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, television, and radio to “report the news fully, accurately and fairly.” By contrast, 36% said they had “not very much” trust, while 34% reported “none at all.”
This marks the first time in the poll’s 50-year history that overall trust in the media has dropped below 30%, falling beneath 2024’s record low of 31%.
AMERICANS’ PRIDE IN THEIR COUNTRY IS DECLINING, NEW GALLUP POLL SHOWS
Republican trust in the media also hit a record low at just 8%, the first time it has fallen into single digits. By comparison, a slim majority of Democrats (51%) expressed trust in the press. Independents’ trust held steady at a record low of 27% compared to 2024.
Older Americans showed the highest levels of trust overall, but even among those 65 and older, Republicans and independents reported particularly low confidence—just 17% and 42%, respectively.
MEDIA’S CREDIBILITY CRISIS DOESN’T HAVE QUICK FIX AS TRUST IN NEWSPAPERS, TV NEWS CRUMBLES, EXPERTS SAY
“With confidence fractured along partisan and generational lines, the challenge for news organizations is not only to deliver fair and accurate reporting but also to regain credibility across an increasingly polarized and skeptical public,” Gallup senior editor Megan Brenan concluded in the report.
Tim Graham, executive editor of the media watchdog site NewsBusters.org, said that the mainstream press’s recent coverage of the Trump administration helps explain the decline in public confidence.
NEW GALLUP POLL SHOWS CONSISTENT DISTRUST IN MEDIA, BUT BUMP IN CONFIDENCE FOR POLICE
“It’s not surprising that trust in the media keeps declining when you ask Americans if they report the news ‘fully, accurately, and fairly.’ Reporting on politics often comes via a carefully prepared partisan narrative, and when facts or events depart from that narrative, they are omitted,” Graham told Fox News Digital.
“The standards for civic discourse are very stilted. It’s considered fair and accurate to compare Donald Trump to Hitler—those so-called ‘independent fact-checkers’ don’t budge—but if you call a Democrat a ‘socialist,’ they pounce,” he added.