New poll finds 60% of Americans don’t trust the media to report the news ‘fully, accurately, and fairly’

The distrust the American people have for the national media to provide fair and accurate reporting is continuing unabated, Gallup
revealed this week.

And it is not just Republicans — who have long had problems with the the nation’s TV and newspaper outlets — keeping the media’s numbers low. Independents have trust issues with the media — as do a fair share of the country’s Democrats.

What’s going on?

A new Gallup poll published Wednesday reveals that a majority of Americans do not trust the mass media to tell the full story.

According to Gallup, only 40% of U.S. adults admit to having “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust and confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly.” And 60% of adults say they have “not very much” trust or “none at all.”

Of the four options on level of trust — “a great deal,” “a fair amount,” “not very much,” and “none at all” — a plurality of respondents (33%) chose “none at all.”

The overall trust in media (40%) is the lowest it has been since 2016, when it dropped to 32%. And it hasn’t been above 50% since 2003.

Broken down by political affiliation, the data is not encouraging for the media.

Naturally, Republicans are unwilling to say they trust TV, newspapers, and radio to report the news accurately. This has been a decades-long fight for the GOP. And today, only 10% of Republicans are willing to say they trust the media. Some 58% of GOPers told Gallup they have no trust at all in the media.

But the news is not good among independents, either. Just over one-third (36%) of voters who identify as independent said they trust the media.

Even the party seen by many Americans as in bed with the liberal media is showing that it has some trust issues. Not even three-quarters (73%) of Democrats are willing to say they trust the media. Gallup noted that the share of Democrats who said they trust the media “a great deal” dropped from 24% to 16%.