Teens Say Media Is “Fake, Biased and Untrustworthy”
“Half of teens believe journalists make up details, such as quotes… and 6 in 10 believe journalists take photos and videos out of context.”
A new News Literacy Project report shows what years of lopsided coverage and partisan framing have produced: an entire generation that doesn’t buy what the mainstream press is selling. Teens ages 13–18, who live in the most information-saturated era in history, overwhelmingly view the news media as untrustworthy, biased, and often dishonest.
The report opens with a blunt assessment:
“A majority of teens (84%) offered a negative word to describe news media… including ‘Fake,’ ‘Crazy,’ ‘Boring,’ ‘Biased’ and ‘Sad.’”
Those negative words weren’t vague sentiments. They were specific accusations. The largest category (19%) used terms tied to deception:
“Fake,” “False,” “Lies,” “Misleading,” and “Untrustworthy.”
For decades, legacy media insulated itself from criticism while openly choosing sides in cultural and political battles. Teenagers have grown up watching that play out in real time across social platforms and raw, unfiltered sources. They see the contrast, and they no longer give the press the benefit of the doubt.
The NLP report makes clear the depth of the credibility collapse. When asked what journalists do well, the largest “positive” response group wasn’t positive at all:
“81 teens said journalists do well at lying and deceiving… including ‘Telling lies,’ ‘Reporting fake news,’ ‘Overexaggerating,’ ‘Spreading misinformation,’ and ‘Gaslighting.’”
And when invited to describe what journalists should improve, teens overwhelmingly landed on the obvious:
“Telling the truth,” “Fact checking,” and “Not lying.”
Even more striking, teens think unethical newsroom behavior is routine. The report notes:
“Half of teens believe journalists make up details, such as quotes… and 6 in 10 believe journalists take photos and videos out of context.”
This is the predictable outcome of a media ecosystem that long ago abandoned even the pretense of neutrality. Today’s teens have unprecedented access to competing information sources, raw footage, independent journalists, and direct statements from public figures. When they compare that to how corporate media packages the news, the disconnect is obvious.
The result? A collapsing trust environment—and a generation that sees the legacy press not as a watchdog, but as just another political actor.
As the report bluntly summarizes:
“Teens consistently demonstrated the belief that unethical behaviors… are more common than standards-based practices.”
The media spent years lecturing the public. Now the youngest Americans are lecturing back.
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Comments
Apparently, the kids are a lot smarter than the journalists think they are
They may be smart but appear to be buying in what the MSM is saying. Why did they vote for Mamdani? Because they were cheated in their education. They think he has the answers. Yes, he has answers but
do they understand what answers he will provide?
I don’t think the 13-18 year old group did much voting in NYC.
Give the Dems time…
They may not like it or believe it, but they eat up the next smart phone or Tik Tok challenge, so with all their choices, they are not helping make themselves any smarter or more competent to solve problems they encounter. Better to complain, stare at the screen, then call Door Dash for eats.
Underrated post.
FWIW many of the teens you are so eagerly berating those currently age 15 and up will be eligible to vote in ’28. The remainder will be be eligible to vote just as SSA runs out of prior year’s excess SSA tax to meet the projected 25% ish shortfall between SSA annual revenue and benefit payments. Y’all better hope they don’t watch retro movies on their phone like Logan’s Run and then seek to apply the lesson to ‘solve’ the funding shortfall.
Stating reality is not berating. More lamenting about the status of the young, so dissatisfied in their luxury, so when their chance does come, they will not be able to know it or competent enough to resolve it.
The rest of your comment has nothing to do with the matter.
The fact you are so dismissive of them demonstrates why the younger generations hold contempt for the ‘establishment’, the ‘system’ and the Boomers, Silent Gen and others who ran those.systems into the ground. Your comment comes across like someone indifferent to their concerns, sounding like something a ‘Rich Man North of Richmond’ might say.
Make no mistake the current populist wave isn’t going away. IMO we’re far wiser to bring younger generations into the fold of center/right populism than to be so blatantly dismissive of their very real economic concerns that we drive them to leftist populism and voting in more socialism by backing commies like Mamdani.
FWIW the age demographic with most consistent support for Biden in ’20, in polling during his Presidency and in ’24 were those aged 65+. Younger Men were shifting solidly to Trump, younger women…. not so much.
Not only that, they’ve seen how Gen Z has been lied to by the Higher Ed establishment with the whole college scam and the impossible job market, so it’s not that far of a stretch for them to dismiss all the snake oil salesmen masquerading as authority figures.
Why are you telling someone that contradicts what you were told. Do you know better? In fact, nothing in the first comment was berating or dismissive. Lament was the right word. It’s sad that they are so frustrated, but also sad that they do not understand they are helping dig the hole, whether or not it goes away. It was a simple point about their reality, not at all about polling or populism or Boomers or whatever else you want to twist it about. Got it now?
old school 26,
You are ignoring the entire thrust of my post(s). You are treating them as if they are a monolithic block. They ain’t, they are individuals just as prior generations are. You ascribe all sorts of unproductive things to them as a group which aren’t universally applicable to each or even most of them to the degree you imply.
You followed up by refusing to recognize the potential dangers I pointed out about stoking flames of the coming generational conflict any higher in my initial post dismissing them entirely. Now you’re doubling down on dismissal. You might wish to consider changing the way you express yourself with to younger generations b/c you’re coming across like a generic Scooby Do villain ‘I’d have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids’
I was a bit bemused when I read “Teens” in the headline. Its use in reportage in recent years has been to describe black thugs, under the age of thirty, on murderous, destructive rampages.
Indeed, “Teens” is a euphemism for never mind who you’re seeing.
The other half who believe the media have democrats for parents.
The only problem with what this generation is going through is that they have no idea what a reliable source is; or how to tell the difference bwteen propoganda, conspiracy theories and actual facts. But I applaud them in realizing that the media is just trying to manipulate them, that is a epiphany many of my adult friends have not yet made.
There may be hope, after all.
The problem Lefties have is that their ideology is entirely un-natural and requires continual indoctrination, plus enormous peer pressure not to stray from dogma.
No generation of children will ever be born that is naturally leftarded.
Yet they allow the social media companies a direct pipe into their brain 24 X 7.
Stupid, lying talking heads may be bad, but an AI-driven disinformation-machine delivered via an alluring and sexy ‘smart phone’ is orders of magnitude worse.
Just another instance of evolution at work. Stupid parents luck into smarter kids.
Maybe someday someone will figure out how the influencer industry affects their attitudes about themselves and reality in general. My grandkids cheerfully describe them all as being entirely fake, but still worth the clicks, mostly to distract from unsettling and persistent uncertainties about virtually everything. They perceive the moral vacuum, and have to find something to fill it, which Tictock and other fluff merchants ubiquitously supply.
At 15-19 (and through most of my 20s if I’m being honest) I’d never watch the news. I didn’t understand outrage porn and didn’t really care about other people’s “bummers”.
There’s a certain advantage of being completely self centered. The not- my – monkey’s – not- my – circus mode of operation was far less stressful.
https://brusselssignal.eu/2025/12/macron-proposes-labelling-for-reliable-news-outlets/
I stopped watching the news after the 2020 election debacle/deception, and I have never felt better!!
Foreign sources are becoming more reliable than domestic fronts for the Dems.
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