28% - Trust in US Media at RECORD LOW per Gallup Poll - RePost

28% is a new RECORD LOW for trust in the US Media. Wow - Gallup has been measuring this number for decades.  And how is it this high?  From Gallup.

Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ confidence in the mass media has edged down to a new low, with just 28% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This is down from 31% last year and 40% five years ago.

Meanwhile, seven in 10 U.S. adults now say they have “not very much” confidence (36%) or “none at all” (34%).

When Gallup began measuring trust in the news media in the 1970s, between 68% and 72% of Americans expressed confidence in reporting. However, by the next reading in 1997, public confidence had fallen to 53%. Media trust remained just above 50% until it dropped to 44% in 2004, and it has not risen to the majority level since. The highest reading in the past decade was 45% in 2018, which came just two years after confidence had collapsed amid the divisive 2016 presidential campaign.

The latest 28% confidence reading, from a Sept. 2-16 poll, marks the first time the measure has fallen below 30%.

Media Trust at Record Lows Among All Party Groups

Although Democrats and Republicans continue to express different levels of trust in the news media, the percentages with high confidence in reporting are at low points among all party groups.

• Republicans’ confidence, which hasn’t risen above 21% since 2015, has dropped to single digits (8%) for the first time in the trend.
• Independents’ trust has not reached the majority level since 2003, and the latest 27% reading matches last year’s historical low.
• For Democrats, the narrowest of majorities (51%) now express trust in the media, which is a repeat of the low previously seen in 2016.

Bottom Line

Confidence in the mass media is historically low, with fewer than three in 10 Americans now placing trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, fairly and accurately. The decline is evident across all major partisan groups, though Republicans’ confidence is now in the single digits, while independents remain largely skeptical. Democrats, who traditionally have been most positive toward the media, now register only a slim majority.

Generational divides further underscore the erosion, with older adults holding significantly more faith than younger Americans in the media. Given younger Democrats’ relatively low confidence in the media, overall trust could decrease further in the future, unless Republican trust rebounds.

With confidence fractured along partisan and generational lines, the challenge for news organizations is not only to deliver fair and accurate reporting but also to regain credibility across an increasingly polarized and skeptical public.

Again via Gallup.