Trust in US News Media Hits Record Low

This year’s poll showed a 1 percentage point drop of Americans who believe the media reports the news fully and accurately from last year. The trend has been on a downward trajectory since 2018.

For the third consecutive year, the number of Americans who claim to completely distrust the media remained higher than those who trust it. The new poll, however, demonstrated a slight drop, with 36% of respondents expressing complete distrust versus 39% in 2023.

Meanwhile, those having “not very much” confidence in the media grew to reach 33% this year.

A large gap remains between Republicans and Democrats, with only 12% of the former expressing trust in media reporting against 54% of the latter. However, the partisan gap has actually been narrowing in the last couple of years. According to data aggregated by Gallup, in 2022, for instance, some 70% of Democrats expressed confidence in the media.  

The pollster sampled 1,007 adult Americans living across the country. The survey was conducted over the first two weeks of September via phone interviews. Respondents were picked randomly for the survey.