Deep Partisan Divide Over Trust in Media

According to polling company Gallup, only 32 percent of adults in the U.S. have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This marks a slight decline compared to 2022 and is identical to the historical low of 2016. Meanwhile, the share of those not trusting the media at all reached a new all-time high of 39 percent. The number had stood at 27 percent in 2016.

Gallup also reports that the level of trust in the media varies greatly depending on political preference. While Republicans have traditionally viewed the media more critically than Democrats, the divergence between both sides of the political spectrum in terms of how the press is regarded remains at an historical high – despite a drop in trust among Democrats this year.

While 58 percent of Democrats expressed a fair amount of trust in the mass media this year, only 11 percent of Republicans did the same. This makes the gap between both parties a whopping 47 percentage points. It had been as large as 63 percentage points in 2020 and as low as 6 in the year 2000, the same result as 1972.