A new survey from Gallup suggests that sixty percent of Americans have little trust in the mass media to deliver the news "fully, accurately and fairly." This marks a record amount of distrut since Gallup began tracking the trend.
The question asked was: "In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media—such as newspapers, TV, and radio—when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly—a great deal, a fair amount, not very much, or none at all?"
Sixty percent answered either "not very much" or "not at all," with the remaining 40 percent opting for either "a great deal" or at least "a fair amount."
Since you probably don't believe this information, here's the chart straight from Gallup; so you can interpret it yourself.
According to the pollsters, this year's drop in media trust is being fueled largely by self-identified Republicans and independents. Twenty-six percent of Republicans said they trusted the media either greatly or a fair amount, similar to the level of trust the GOP reported back in 2008, another election year.
Here is the Gallup chart:
Independents, meanwhile, are much more negative about the media than
they were in 2008, something that Gallup says suggests "the group that
is most closely divided between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney is quite dissatisfied with its ability to get fair and accurate news coverage of this election."
