Gallup: “independents’ confidence” in mass media “is at the lowest point” ever
And: “Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.”
Gallup just released its annual survey on trust in the mass media. Overall trust was just two points off the all-time low (emphasis added):
At 34%, Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” is essentially unchanged from last year and just two points higher than the lowest that Gallup has recorded, in 2016 during the presidential campaign.
Just 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the media, and 27% have “a fair amount.” Meanwhile, 28% of U.S. adults say they do not have very much confidence and 38% have none at all in newspapers, TV and radio. Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.
Hear that? I’ll repeat it, more people have NO TRUST in the media than have trust in the media:
It will surprise no one that a majority of Republicans have no trust whatsoever, and a majority of Democrats have a lot or fair amount of trust. There always has been this partisan divide but the divide widened dramatically after the 2016 presidential election.
Of course the 2016 election sharpened the divide. Anti-Trumpism in the media turned bias into outright manipulation. Perhaps more important for electoral purposes (since the mass media is Democrat media), Gallup finds that independents trust in mass media is at an all time low (emphasis added):
- For the third straight year, the majority of Republicans indicate that they have no trust at all in the media. This figure jumped 10 percentage points in 2020 and has been at or near 60% since then. This year, 57% say they do not have any confidence, while 29% say they do not have very much.
- At 27%, independents’ confidence is at the lowest point in the trend. This is also the first time that it has fallen below 30%. Meanwhile, 41% of independents say they have no trust at all and 32% do not have very much.
- While the great deal/fair amount of confidence reading among Democrats has never fallen below the majority level, the proportion with a great deal of trust has not topped 26%, and it is currently well below that at 18%.
Democrat media is losing independents. It already lost Republicans. Only Democrats love the mass media.
This is yet another example of why people hate the mass media. At a press conference called by Herschel Walker to highlight evictions at a property owned by Raphael Warnock’s church, the media litteraly screeched at Walker:
A crowd of ~20 reporters screeched at Herschel Walker this morning when he suggested they do their jobs and talk to the people who have faced eviction notices from the apartment building owned by Raphael Warnock's church.
They're so close to the building they can almost touch it pic.twitter.com/D8TmLAGU0N
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) October 18, 2022
Whatever the level of trust in the mass media, it’s too high.
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Comments
Not original with me, but I suspect independents’ trust in the media is about average, less than last month and more than next month. So average.
That is not what the graph shows. Independents have been the fastest growing “party” now for years. That is because partisan voters have become increasingly disgruntled with “both” parties. Disgruntled Republicans are very likely to have no trust in the media already. Disgruntled Democrats are very likely unhappy with the pro-Dem media bias so it makes sense that mistrust among independents is tracking with Republicans not Democrats. The independent voter block is where ‘Uniparty” is most used.
As an independent myself, I ALWAYS use that term. That is why I have serious doubts that the GOP will change its ways after the elections. Particularly if McConnell and McCarthy hold on to their leadership posts and thwart the promised MAGA agenda that is fueling the red wave.
Feeding into my argument above, notice how both Democrat AND Republican trust in media has <i?spiked up 2020-2022 while Independent plummetted? That reveals Trump’s MAGA voter base which is YUGE! As the political extremes wage war on each other, the sensible middle is abandoning “both” parties.
It’s not a matter of independents being less informed of politics, we are most in tune with the Uniparty reality and have been long before Trump. That 2020-2022 blip confirms that while MAGA Republicans leave the party, the Stupid Party grows even more stupid.
It looks more like a gullibility/stupidity index to me.
You are funny.
People who lose trust in media simply stop watching television. Completely.
Yet one more “tinfoil hat conspiracy theory” on the way to being proven right.
If you want to know exactly how stupid America has become, count the months between this survey’s results and the “mostly peaceful protest” telecast highlighted above. The bright people knew this stuff YEARS ago. The sheeple are only now catching on.
This is why I enjoy watching Kari Lake take her icepick out and re-sheathe it inside the guts of three or four puerile syndicated meat-puppets every time she gives interviews.
The most striking thing about the findings that the author does not point out is the HUGE JUMP in Dem media trust right after Trump took office (see graph).
Their “get the bad guy” partisan news porn fantasies played out in front of their eyes, and they are deluded enough to confuse that with some kind of quest for truth.
Indeed. It highlights just how partisan and out of touch the MSM has become.
The “media” is the democrat media, period.
IMO our republic can survive jackass leaders from time to time. However, I am not sure that it can survive a corrupt Fourth Estate – PRAVDA on the Hudson.
Pravda nye Izvestia, y Izvestia nye Pravda.
Wish I could vote for Herschel Walker. The way the Democrats operate, maybe I damn well should.
If you doubt Walker’s MAGA creds, keep in mind that when Trump created the World Football League, Walker was the first player signed. Trump signed him and Doug Flutie to personal contracts guaranteeing they would get paid no matter what. How can you even be thinking about not voting for Walker?
USFL.
Correct. It was a long time ago.
I think you missed his point.
He’s saying he would vote for him if eligible but maybe he should anyways because Dems don’t let pesky things like eligibility stop them.
Wut? Show me exactly where he said what you are claiming.
Read between the lines. Travis doesn’t live in Georgia.
That changes everything. I didn’t know that.
It’s implied in his comment. I don’t know where he lives, but he is clearly implying he can’t vote for Walker because he does not live in Georgia. And as healthgyfsu stated he is also being snarky by implying that maybe he should just vote for walker illegally anyways considering how Dems often cheat.
Reminded of a simple example of this bias from The NY Times this morning. The constant quote of, “Trump falsely claimed voter fraud…” I have yet to hear ABC/NBC/CBS.NYT/LST et all say “Stacey Abrahams falsely claimed the governor’s election was stolen…”. If anyone has seen that, please, pass it on.
https://reclaimthenet.org/majority-of-voters-say-the-media-is-a-threat-to-democracy/
The media think that the problem is that they’ve lost the trust of the public, and they’re wrong.
The problem is that they have deserved to lose it.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I trust media implicitly: TO LIE THEIR ASSES OFF.
I trust media to carry water for leftism and Democrats and the liberal establishment to an extent that would make Pravda say “calm down” does that count as media trust?
If I were Walker, I would have retorted: “NO! YOU go in there and ask the questions!! This story has been reported for a week. How many of you have bothered to come down here on your own and interview the victims of Slumlord Warnock??
I have a long background in old-school journalism, and routinely tell people that they will never meet anyone more outraged by what’s happened to journalism in the past 20 years than me.
There’s one positive, although not very positive: The media simply don’t throw the weight that they once did, because the trust factor has declined so badly.
The weird thing to me is that they act as if this is the old “gatekeeper” era when it was much harder than it is today to fact check the media. Outlets like the NYT, WaPo, et al still seem to think that they control things. Guess what? Not so much.
My attitude toward the MSM started over 50 years ago when Uncle Walt declared the Tet Offensive to be a communist victory. In the five decades since, I have seen nothing to change my mind.