CNN analyst slammed for blaming Trump for collapsed Republican trust in national media: 'Simply breathtaking'

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Media top headlines August 31

In media news today, critics resurface Biden ABC interview where he pledged to stay in Afghanistan until every American was rescued, Blinken gets knocked for avoiding questions after Afghan withdrawal speech, and Biden repeatedly implies he's not in charge of when, where he can take press questions

CNN analyst and New Yorker writer Susan Glasser blamed former President Trump's rhetoric for the plummet in GOP trust in national media over the past five years.

A new Pew survey shows only 35% of Republicans have at least some trust in the national media, just half of the 70% who did in 2016. On the flip side of the spectrum, 78% of Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents had at least some trust in national news, a partisan gap of 43 points. The gap is even wider between liberal Democrats (83%) and conservative Republicans (30%).

Glasser, the former editor of Politico, blamed Trump's anti-media rhetoric for the fall, writing, "The Trump years, in short. Turns out having a president who labels the press ‘enemies of the people’ makes a difference."

Glasser's critics pounded her framing of it as simply a reflection of Trump's "fake news" and "enemy of the people" rhetoric rather than demonstrable liberal bias and collapsed media narratives.

"You really don't see another explanation for those numbers?" independent journalist Matt Taibbi asked.

"Alternatively, the press torched their own credibility," Tablet's Noam Blum wrote, "even in the eyes of many people who hate Trump. Their utter incompetence did nothing but hinder efforts to actually go after him for things he deserved."

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Conservative radio host and NBC News analyst Hugh Hewitt pointed to infamous media debacles like the the coverage of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, the embrace of the Christopher Steele dossier and Russia investigation, and overall "lurch left" of mainstream media.

"It is wrong to label a free [press] enemies of the people. It is also wrong for elite media to be so deeply biased," he wrote.

"This media figure blames Trump for distrust in the media, not the media itself," conservative think tank analyst Erielle Davidson wrote. "Simply breathtaking. They still don't get it."

The poll showed an overall 18-point drop among all adults in national media trust, from 76% in 2016 to 58% in 2021. Just 12% said they had a "lot" of trust in information from national news outlets.

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The survey showed far more confidence among all groups in local news outlets, with 75% of all Americans expressing some level of trust. Only 27% said they had confidence in social media information, including just a scant 4% who had a "lot" of trust in it.