Americans' trust in media drops to almost record low in new survey

A new Gallup survey finds Americans' trust in the media to accurately and fairly report the news is almost as low as it's ever been.

Just 36 percent responded they had a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in print, TV, and radio reporting, with only seven percent answering the former in the poll. It was the second-lowest number in the Gallup question's history, only finishing above the 32-percent mark from 2016, when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton for the presidency.

Americans' haven't expressed majority faith in the press in the Gallup survey since 2003. It continued a downward slide since trust rose to 45 percent in 2018, the second year of the Trump administration.

The drop coincides with a fall among independents, with just 31 percent expressing a great or fair amount of trust in the media, down from 42 percent in 2018 and 36 percent last year.

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The partisan divide in media trust continues to be stark. Sixty-eight percent of Democrats expressed trust in the media, against a scant 11 percent of Republicans. Remarkably, that was a smaller gap than in 2020, when 73 percent of Democrats and 10 percent of Republicans – the lowest ever recorded by Gallup – said they trusted the press.

GOP trust saw a steep drop-off at the beginning of the Trump era, going from 32 percent trust to just 14 percent from 2015 to 2016. That already low amount of faith hasn't recovered since then, as prominent outlets have increasingly embraced wearing liberals views on their sleeves. 

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"Historically, Republicans' confidence in the accuracy and fairness of the news media's reporting has not risen above 52% over the past quarter century. At the same time, Democrats' confidence has not fallen below the 2016 reading of 51%. For their part, independents' trust in the media has not been at the majority level since 2003," Gallup noted.