Gallup poll: Americans’ confidence in news media has dropped to record low

Confidence in America’s news media — both newspapers and television — has fallen to all-time low, with just 16% of U.S. adults saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers and 11% in television news, according to a new poll by Gallup that was published Monday.

Americans have never had much confidence in newspapers and televised news, but the issue has become much more partisan in recent years.

The poll showed that among the parties, Democrats had the most confidence in the news media. Only 5% of Republicans had some confidence in newspapers. The same went for 12% of Independents and 35% of Democrats.

Democrats’ confidence in newspapers had risen to around 42% to 46% under the Trump administration but it began to slump after President Joe Biden took office. The majority of Republicans have had little or no confidence in newspapers since 2017.

Confidence in televised news didn’t fare much better. Only 20% Democrats had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in television news while independents and Republicans both ranked at around 8%.

This is now the fourth consecutive year that confidence in televised news has dipped below 20%. At the same time, 53% of Americans now say they have very little or no confidence at all in television news.

Gallup has tracked Americans’ confidence in newspapers since 1973 and television news since 1993. The only time a majority of Americans have expressed confidence in newspapers was in 1979, when 51% expressed some confidence in the institutions.

“Although trust in the media in the U.S. has been scarce for many years, confidence ratings for newspapers and TV news have never been as low as they are now. Taken together, these data suggest that the media has a long way to go to win back the public’s confidence,” Gallup said.