Trust in the mass media has bottomed out. Gallup, which has been tracking public trust in newspapers, TV, and radio for over 50 years, revealed Oct. 14 that a plurality (36%) of Americans have no trust at all in the mass media. 33% of respondents said they don't trust the mass media "very much." Only 31% of Americans indicated they trust the media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly." Some academics and media outfits have in recent years tried to pin this breakdown of trust on President Donald Trump and on other individuals who have expressed contempt for the mainstream press, such as the late Rush Limbaugh. Although simple and politically expedient, such explanations fail to account for why this decline was under way long before Trump's descent down the golden escalator on June 16, 2015, and the debut of Limbaugh's self-titled show in October 1984. Extra to considering several proposed drivers of the broader trend, Blaze News spoke to Jacob L. Nelson, associate professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Communication and author of "Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public," about both Gallup's findings and what his own research has revealed about Americans' degrading trust. While there are multiple and in some cases competing explanations for why Americans don't trust the media, one thing is clear: The continuous advancement of brazen falsehoods and deceptive narratives is not helping. Blaze News has highlighted seven egregious examples of false or misleading reports that have served both to justify Americans' distrust and to illustrate what a trustworthy media might seek to avoid. Bad diagnosis Gallup data indicates that the decline in Americans' trust in the mass media has been under way since 1976. Among those signaling a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the media, there appears to have been a brief rebound from 2000 to 2003, but the downward trend resumed in 2004 — around the time weapons of mass destruction were not discovered in Iraq. This year, a record-low number of respondents (31%) expressed a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media — down one point from last year's similarly abysmal figure. Meanwhile, outright distrust rose from 4% in 1976 to 36% in 2024, briefly cresting at 39% last year. Slight distrust rose from 22% in 1976 to a high of 41% in 2016. It now sits at 33%. In the Trump years, trust in the media skyrocketed among Democrats. Broken down by party affiliation, Gallup indicated that 54% of Democrats, 27% of independents, and 12% of Republican respondents signaled a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. Republican trust in the media dropped off around the time of the Watergate scandal and in the lead-up to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. After a brief increase, trust began steadily declining from 1976 onward, enjoying partial though fleeting recoveries at points in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The biggest one-year drop appears to have taken place between 2015 and 2016. Independents' trust, though historically stronger than that of their Republican counterparts, has — with only a few exceptions — largely degraded in parallel. Democrats' trust (i.e. "great deal" / "fair amount") tells a different story. Starting six points higher at first measure in 1972, Democratic trust declined parallel to Republicans' trust from the end of the Vietnam War until 1997 but then began zigzagging erratically during George W. Bush's first term. During the Obama years, trust dropped, reaching an all-time low of 51% in 2016. However, in the Trump years, trust in the media skyrocketed among Democrats, reaching an all-time high of 76% in 2018 — amid the lead-up to the first impeachment of the Republican president. According to Gallup, Democrats' trust in the media tanked 16 points between 2022 and 2024 to 54%. Another telling insight from the survey is the generational divide. Geriatrics' trust in the media currently sits at 43%, having bounced around the high 40s for the past 14 years. Respondents ages 50-64, meanwhile, are less trusting, with only 33% expressing confidence in the media. Only 26% of Americans ages 18-49 expressed a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. Possible drivers This decline has prompted a great deal of speculation in recent years about potential causes. Some analysts have suggested that the growing distrust in the media is the result of a far greater social crisis. While less an answer and more a prompt for additional question, this is nevertheless borne out by polling data. Gallup indicated earlier this year that the public's average confidence in 17 institutions, including the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, organized religion, higher education, and banks, has been lower than 30% for the past three years. As television news and newspapers are among the institutions least trusted, it's clear they are still excelling at shedding public confidence. Journalist and author Matt Taibbi noted in a recent Canadian state media documentary that trust may have been degraded in part by a change in the media's business model. Taibbi noted that prior to the 1990s, American broadcast news sought to secure the largest possible audience with minimal objectionable content. But facing increased competition, these outlets began targeting specific demographics in the early 2000s. This, coupled with technological disruptions — AI is now threatening a new shake-up — has allegedly helped to polarize the media landscape. Owing to the rise of social media and supposed democratization of information, the mainstream media also has faced increasing competition for the public's trust and attention from new sources and platforms. The Pew Research Center revealed Oct. 16 that young American adults and Republicans are now almost as likely to trust information from social media sources as from national news organizations. The survey found that among all U.S. adults, 74% of respondents said they had a lot or some trust in local news organizations. 59% said the same of national news organizations. 37% said social media sites had secured their confidence. Whereas the supermajority of Democrats trusted both local and national news organizations, 66% of Republicans supported local outlets and only 40% supported national news organizations — narrowly beating social media sites by three points. Among adults 18-29, 52% expressed confidence in social media sites, 56% in local news, and 71% in national news organizations. Blaze News senior editor Cortney Weil noted that extra to providing Americans with alternative information sources, social media platforms such as X have been helpful in illuminating deceptive media practices. Between Trump and Elon Musk's purchase of perhaps the most powerful social media platform in the world, everyday Americans can see that members of the media all too often launder their preferred narrative through their reporting under the guise of journalism. Some Americans may have begun nurturing distrust not only after achieving a better understanding of how the proverbial sausage is made but upon discovering who is operating the grinder and where. There appears to be incredible ideological conformity in the press, where liberals are grossly overrepresented. A 2020 study published in the journal Science Advances indicated that a survey of U.S. political journalists found that among the 78% of respondents who identified with or leaned toward a particular party, eight in 10 said they were liberal/Democrats. 'I have to present myself as someone who is deeply skeptical.' The problem of real or perceived viewpoint bias is compounded by the de-localization of newsrooms over time to coastal hives amid sweeping consolidation. "Unless and until media outlets step away from the NYC/D.C./L.A. bubbles and venture out into real America, I don't harbor much hope for them," said Weil. While these factors might account for Republicans' disproportionate distrust, the lack of intellectual diversity in the press has turned off liberals as well, such as Peabody Award-winning editor Uri Berliner, who complained — just prior to his conveniently timed ouster — that NPR, where he worked for 25 years, had become an "openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience." Money-poisoned wells and oversaturation Professor Jacob Nelson at the University of Utah has spent years analyzing trust, objectivity, and bias in reporting. Nelson told Blaze News that in his research, interviewees suggested when asked about their confidence in the media that "the news as a whole is inherently untrustworthy." "My sense is that that's in large part due to the fact that the media environment has grown so saturated and now comprises so many different providers of news, many of which are antagonistic toward one another and sort of presenting themselves as, 'We are the ones who have the truth, and if you go elsewhere, that is not where you find the truth,'" said Nelson. "And rather than make people feel as though, 'Okay, I can trust this outlet,' I think that oftentimes people feel, 'Okay, well, if everyone is telling me that everyone is untrustworthy, then I feel like I can't trust anyone, or at the very least, I have to present myself as someone who is deeply skeptical,'" continued Nelson. "'Otherwise, I might be construed as being, you know, like a sucker or someone who is not savvy enough to make sense of what's true or what's false in the world.'" While reluctant to opine on a possible correlation between the rise of populism and the decline in public trust, Nelson speculated that an anti-elitist verve and sensitivity to patronization might prompt some Americans to discount the supposed expertise of media professionals and harbor distrust. Nelson suggested that a significant factor affecting trust is the perception that journalism is compromised by commercial interests. "We did these interviews with people where we asked them, 'Do you trust journalism? Why or why not?'" Nelson told Blaze News. "The question that we kept asking people was, 'Why is it that you think that news organizations are attempting to deceive you?
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