Trust in mainstream media at all time low

Americans have less trust in the mainstream media than ever before, according to the latest findings by Gallup.

Only forty percent say they have any level of trust in the media to report accurately and fairly.

The figure once again represents an all time low, and has significantly declined from a high of 55 percent in 1999.

Eight years ago, In 2007, the figure dipped below half, and since that time, the majority of Americans have continued to declare that they have little or no trust in the mainstream media.

In more significant findings, trust in the media is much lower among young people, with just 36 percent of Americans aged 18-49 declaring some level of trust. Among Americans aged 50 and over, 45 percent have some level of trust.

The trend also dovetails with a decline in trust in the government, and in several other institutions.

Record numbers now believe Congress is corrupt, three quarters of Americans believe corruption is widespread throughout government, and half of all Americans view the federal government as “an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”

Simply put, Americans trust in ‘the authorities’ is dead and buried.

Gallup notes that “Americans’ trust level in the media has drifted downward over the past decade. The same forces behind the drop in trust in government more generally, as well confidence in many U.S. institutions, may also be at work with the media. But some of the loss in trust may have been self-inflicted.”

“Major venerable news organizations have been caught making serious mistakes in the past several years, including the scandal involving former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in 2015 that some of his firsthand accounts of news events had been exaggerated or ‘misremembered.’”

SOURCE