Americans’ trust in the establishment media to report current events “fully, accurately and fairly” plummeted to a record low in 2024, Gallup polling found Monday.
The decline in trust indicates the media lost credibility due to pushing false narratives, such as Hunter Biden’s laptop story, Russian collusion, the source of the 2020 pandemic, the January 6 investigation, and numerous hoaxes:
As a result, only 31 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to tell the truth, one point below its low watermark of 32 percent in 2016 and 2023.
Gallup reported its findings:
Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media, with 31% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” similar to last year’s 32%. Americans’ trust in the media — such as newspapers, television and radio — first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year.
For the third consecutive year, more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence.
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As has been the case historically, partisans have different levels of confidence in the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. Currently, 54% of Democrats, 27% of independents and 12% of Republicans say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. Independents’ trust matches the record low in 2022, while Democrats’ and Republicans’ are statistically similar to their historical low points.
Americans’ trust in the media has not always been low, but since the rise of social media and various platforms that undercut the media elites’ former control over narratives broadcast on the big three networks and several nationally read papers, Americans’ trust plummeted.
Americans’ trust in the media in the 1970s ranged from the low 70s to the high 60s but sank to the low 50s into the Bush administration. During the Obama administration, it hovered above 40 percent and tanked to its lowest mark with the rise of former President Donald Trump.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
