WASHINGTON, D.C. – The degree of trust that the public holds for the current legacy media in the United States is at an all-time low, experts say, with one of the main reasons cited as being far too much opinion and blatant bias – on both sides of the political aisle – being interjected into the news on a daily basis, among other factors.
Newspapers – both print and the online variety – as well as broadcast and cable television news programming are simply not trusted by the average person, and experts are saying that it’s a situation that could take a great deal of time to right itself.
A new Gallup poll indicates that most current news sources in the country are perceived as being neither fair nor objective, and that “Americans are less confident in major U.S. institutions than they were a year ago.”
This problem actually extended beyond simply the news media to many positions of authority in the U.S., including the military, the presidency, police, religious organizations, banks, the Supreme Court and Congress; however, none of the aforementioned positions and organizations have experienced quite the extreme drop in trust as the media has, according to the Gallup poll.
Currently, just 16 percent of U.S. residents have a “great deal or quite a lot” of confidence in the print newspapers this year, which represents a 5 percent decrease from 2021 and the lowest amount since Gallup first began conducting these surveys back in 1973. In addition, only 11 percent of those surveyed – down from 16 percent in 2021 – said they had a “great deal or quite a lot” of confidence in broadcast and cable news programming, yet another all-time low.
Some experts are opining that the line has blurred – both on left and right-leaning news networks – between straight reporting and opinion, with clear biases on-display for all to see.
But while trust in the media has eroded significantly in recent years, there remains a difference between how Republicans and Democrats perceive the problem. Republicans, the Gallup findings said, are far less trusting of the news overall, with only 5 percent of Republicans saying that they have a “great deal or quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers and just 8 percent expressing confidence in televised news.
In contrast, 35 percent of Democrats have a “great deal or quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers, along with 20 percent expressing that sentiment in regards to TV news.
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