WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ trust in the mass media has improved from last year’s record low, although it remains weak by historical standards. Thirty-three percent of U.S. adults now say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in newspapers, television and radio to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly,” up from 28% last year.
At the same time, 33% of Americans say they have “not very much” confidence in the media, and an equal 33% have “none at all.”
The latest results are from Gallup’s Sept. 1-17 Governance poll. The survey was completed just before the Trump administration denied White House access to several national news organizations beginning Sept. 18, accusing them of unfair reporting. Other major news organizations subsequently curtailed some White House pool coverage in response. Because these events occurred after Gallup’s field period ended, any effect they may have on Americans’ views of the media is not reflected in the current results.
Despite this year’s increase, confidence in the media remains near the bottom of Gallup’s more than 50-year trend. When Gallup first asked the question in the 1970s, about seven in 10 Americans said they trusted the media. Confidence was still above 50% when Gallup resumed the measure in the 1990s and stayed there into the early 2000s. It fell in 2004, reflecting a sharp drop in Republicans’ confidence at the same time CBS news anchor Dan Rather’s reelection-year reporting on George W. Bush’s military service was being disputed. Since then, public confidence has generally declined, falling below 30% for the first time last year.
Republican Trust Rebounds From Record Low
Nearly all of the improvement in media trust this year reflects an uptick among Republicans. Twenty-two percent now express confidence in the media, up from a record-low 8% last year and the highest Republican reading since 2015. Democrats’ confidence is essentially steady at 50%, versus 51% last year, while independents’ is also statistically unchanged, at 31%.
Although Republicans have regained some confidence in the media, the wide partisan gap seen since 2004 persists, with Democrats continuing to express at least twice as much trust as Republicans.
Over the long term, Democratic trust reached 76% in 2018, essentially matching its 75% readings in 1974 and 1976, before declining fairly steadily to 50% today. Republican trust, by contrast, has never returned to or even approached its 68% peak at the start of the trend in 1972. Independents’ confidence has also fallen sharply since the early years.
Bottom Line
Americans’ confidence in the news media has pulled back from last year’s record low, but trust remains historically weak and polarized. Just one-third of Americans believe the media report the news fully, accurately and fairly, while two-thirds have limited or no confidence. And while Republicans’ confidence is up, it remains below its historical average.
The partisan trends also reveal a somewhat different political environment toward the media in Trump’s second term than in his first. Republicans’ already dampened trust fell sharply during Trump’s 2016 campaign amid his attacks on the press as biased and “fake news” but then recovered somewhat in 2018, rising to 21%, similar to today's 22%. Democrats’ trust moved more strongly in the opposite direction at that time, with their trust rising from 51% in 2016 to 72% in 2017 and a record-high 76% in 2018. Whether that shift reflected a defensive stance toward the media on the part of Democrats or approval of its performance as a government watchdog was unclear.
So far in Trump’s second term, there has been no comparable Democratic surge. Democrats' confidence remains near its historical low point, while Republicans' has again improved modestly. At least this was the picture before Trump’s recent renewed focus on media fairness.
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Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).
