Trust In Media Hits New Low

[Rightguide]

Politics
October 2, 2025

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

Republicans' confidence in mass media to report news "fully, accurately and fairly" now at 8%

by Megan Brenan
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.

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%.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx

 

[ll74]

And yet you have fox news on 24/7.

Weird.

 

[Bn2f]

It’s funny that a magat/trumper/repub/conservative can decry trust in media post the 786 million Dominion Lawsuit settlement.

 

[LilKitKat]

Politics
October 2, 2025

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

Republicans' confidence in mass media to report news "fully, accurately and fairly" now at 8%

by Megan Brenan
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.

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%.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx

Is this a surprise?
Trump's plan since 2015ish has been to make the media look bad as much as possible, whether factually based or not, but saying "fake news" to anything and everything and pumping up Fox or alt-right outlets and slamming anyone more middle of the road or left leaning and silencing others with lawsuits or whatever he can implement.
As such, of course his constituents have subscribed to that line of thinking.
So the right now believes that the media is corrupt except Fox and Breitbart and The Blaze and whatever...whereas NBC or CBS or CNN or whatever is just all lies...even though everyone watched them all for decades as the truth or close enough to it.

 

[jomar]

If so then all is going according to the trumpian plan because only he alone can be trusted to bring the truth to MAGAt nation.

 

[LilKitKat]

It’s funny that a magat/trumper/repub/conservative can decry trust in media post the 786 million Dominion Lawsuit settlement.

that incident? Fake news. Never happened. Next question.

 

[HumpDayHoratio]

And yet you have fox news on 24/7.

Weird.

Yeah, Fox News is ONE…OK, two if you include AM talk radio.

Yet, you Radicalized have abccbscnnmsnbcnbcnprpbs, all the print media, hollyweird, and…am I missing anything? Information dominance has been your MO baby…until that interweb that throws you curveballs, has allowed regular Americans access to info that that alphabet soup of networks was acting as gatekeepers to.

 

[LilKitKat]

Yeah, Fox News is ONE…OK, two if you include AM talk radio.

Yet, you Radicalized have abccbscnnmsnbcnbcnprpbs, all the print media, hollyweird, and…am I missing anything? Information dominance has been your MO baby…until that interweb that throws you curveballs, has allowed regular Americans access to info that that alphabet soup of networks was acting as gatekeepers to.

yes because everyone is lying to us and the world and has been for decades but as soon as trump was elected, they became corrupt and liars...but only fox decided to tell the world how great he is.
makes complete sense

 

[Bn2f]

Yeah, Fox News is ONE…OK, two if you include AM talk radio.

Yet, you Radicalized have abccbscnnmsnbcnbcnprpbs, all the print media, hollyweird, and…am I missing anything? Information dominance has been your MO baby…until that interweb that throws you curveballs, has allowed regular Americans access to info that that alphabet soup of networks was acting as gatekeepers to.

Most intelligent people digest media post Vietnam/Watergate with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Fox and Limbaugh and co. tapped into that 27% of dumbass, mostly uneducated Americans, like you, who want to be lied to.

 

[DeluxAuto]

When you have a president whining and lying to gullible dipshits for a decade, what the fuck do you think would happen?

 

[ll74]

Yeah, Fox News is ONE…OK, two if you include AM talk radio.

I was responding to the op.

Newsmax, OANN, Rasmussen, PJ Media are all others.

Yet, you Radicalized have abccbscnnmsnbcnbcnprpbs, all the print media, hollyweird, and…am I missing anything? Information dominance has been your MO baby…until that interweb that throws you curveballs, has allowed regular Americans access to info that that alphabet soup of networks was acting as gatekeepers to.

I haven't watched network media in decades. I would need to actually have cable to watch any of them, except CNN, which I found out yesterday, is available via HBO Max....

The only reason why I use the live TV in Paramount+ is for sports.

I don't trust any media that isn't corroborated. Sometimes fox is...sometimes it isn't. Sometimes msnbc is corroborated..sometimes it isn't.

 

[DeluxAuto]

Yeah, Fox News is ONE…OK, two if you include AM talk radio.

Yet, you Radicalized have abccbscnnmsnbcnbcnprpbs, all the print media, hollyweird, and…am I missing anything? Information dominance has been your MO baby…until that interweb that throws you curveballs, has allowed regular Americans access to info that that alphabet soup of networks was acting as gatekeepers to.

Fox paid almost a BILLION DOLLARS for lying to your stupid asses and then a lawyer had to admit in court that Fox is for entertainment purposes only.

Fuck, some people's children.

 

[Bn2f]

An aside: Some people are just born with a ‘please punch me face’.

 

[Bn2f]

O’Reilly tells the idiots to their faces he’s not to be taken seriously and we still get MAGAts following the parade of Becks, Carlson, and Watters.

 

[Rotadom]

This thread is going as well as this s Arizona election fraud threads

 

[Rightguide]

Is this a surprise?
Trump's plan since 2015ish has been to make the media look bad as much as possible, whether factually based or not, but saying "fake news" to anything and everything and pumping up Fox or alt-right outlets and slamming anyone more middle of the road or left leaning and silencing others with lawsuits or whatever he can implement.
As such, of course his constituents have subscribed to that line of thinking.
So the right now believes that the media is corrupt except Fox and Breitbart and The Blaze and whatever...whereas NBC or CBS or CNN or whatever is just all lies...even though everyone watched them all for decades as the truth or close enough to it.

like the media didn’t torch its own credibility long before Trump ever tweeted. He just slapped a catchy nickname on a dumpster fire the networks themselves lit. The only people still pretending CNN is gospel are the same ones who think late-night comedians are journalists. Trump didn’t invent "fake news" he just put a bow on the circus the networks were running for decades and turned it into a spectator sport.

 

[Baztrachian]

Americans’ confidence in the mass media has edged

LOL.

 

[Rightguide]

Fox paid almost a BILLION DOLLARS for lying to your stupid asses and then a lawyer had to admit in court that Fox is for entertainment purposes only.

Fuck, some people's children.

Major payouts and settlements from media and tech companies to Donald Trump in recent years, total over $90 million for the lies they spread about him.

 

[LilKitKat]

like the media didn’t torch its own credibility long before Trump ever tweeted. He just slapped a catchy nickname on a dumpster fire the networks themselves lit. The only people still pretending CNN is gospel are the same ones who think late-night comedians are journalists. Trump didn’t invent "fake news" he just put a bow on the circus the networks were running for decades and turned it into a spectator sport.

As mentioned by another user, every report or op-ed type of piece should be taken with a grain of salt and checked by at least one other source if not more, especially ones based out of the country.
ie, if you watch Fox, maybe check the BBC or Al-Jazeera or AFP or DW. Check Reuters, the AP, the Guardian, NPR, the Economist.
Of course CNN is much more libetal than Fox. Though I applaud them for usually having some sort of Republican in the room for opinions, reports, etc especially during debates, the election coverage, polling, whatever. But I generally check the world perspective because CNN, or Fox or whatever is not tbe trusted as the one source for info.

 

[LilKitKat]

Major payouts and settlements from media and tech companies to Donald Trump in recent years, total over $90 million for the lies they spread about him.

a lot of those were settlements because it was either...Im suing you for 900 quadrillion dollars because you called me a fat liar, or just pay me the 50 mil and this ends in a week and I get to say "you lied on tv"

 

[DeluxAuto]

Major payouts and settlements from media and tech companies to Donald Trump in recent years, total over $90 million for the lies they spread about him.

They paid to avoid his personal vendettas, idiot. How are you so old yet so unaware of how things work?

They admitted in court that they should not be taken seriously.

And is $90 million anywhere near a fucking BILLION? And that was just one entertainment outlet.

 

[Rightguide]

As mentioned by another user, every report or op-ed type of piece should be taken with a grain of salt and checked by at least one other source if not more, especially ones based out of the country.
ie, if you watch Fox, maybe check the BBC or Al-Jazeera or AFP or DW. Check Reuters, the AP, the Guardian, NPR, the Economist.
Of course CNN is much more libetal than Fox. Though I applaud them for usually having some sort of Republican in the room for opinions, reports, etc especially during debates, the election coverage, polling, whatever. But I generally check the world perspective because CNN, or Fox or whatever is not tbe trusted as the one source for info.

I agree, you might want to check out Ground News.

 

[Bn2f]

I agree, you might want to check out Ground News.

Before anyone goes to check out Ground News - let’s test your worthiness on something truthful.
Did Joe Biden rightfully win the 2020 election? Yes or no.

 

[LilKitKat]

I agree, you might want to check out Ground News.

yep, I reco that to everyone because it shows coverage and bias so well!

 

[Rightguide]

a lot of those were settlements because it was either...Im suing you for 900 quadrillion dollars because you called me a fat liar, or just pay me the 50 mil and this ends in a week and I get to say "you lied on tv"

Absolutely, many settlements are just risk management. But let’s not ignore the other side: some of these media organizations clearly believed they could publish smears or misleading claims about Trump and survive a lawsuit. When push came to shove, a $16M–$25M check was cheaper than years in court or risking an unpredictable jury. Settlements don’t always prove guilt; sometimes they prove someone bet wrong, or just decided the legal and PR costs weren’t worth testing the system. Those payouts don't mean the suits were without legal merit.