Survey: Vast majority of Republicans and Independents no longer trust the media, but even Democrats are growing more cynical

A recent Gallup poll found that trust in the mainstream media continues to decline, reaching the second lowest percentage of all time.

Quick Facts

• A Gallup poll showed that only 36 percent of Americans still trust the media at least somewhat.
• Just 7 percent of Americans said they had a great deal of trust in the media, while 34 percent of respondents said they had no trust at all.
• 68 percent of Democrats say they trust the media, compared to 11 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of Independents.
• Although still very high, Democrat trust has actually declined five percentage points over the past year.
• The percentage of people who trust the media is the second lowest ever recorded, trailing only the previous low of 32 percent in 2016.

Gallup began recording American’s trust in the media in 1972, and from 1972 to 1976, 68 to 72 percent of Americans expressed trust in the media. When the question was asked again in 1997, trust was at 53 percent. The downward trend has only continued since, as in a only 7 percent of respondents said they had a great deal of trust in the media, while 34 percent said they have no trust at all.

Trust in mass media, which is defined as newspapers, TV, and radio, fell to an all-time low in 2016, when only 32 percent of respondents said they trusted the media. The number rose again, reaching 45 percent in before a decline that has now reached just 36 percent.

Gallup noted a wide disparity between Democrat voters and other voters in terms of trust in the media. While even Democrat trust in the media has declined, 68 percent of Democrats still trust the media, compared to 31 percent of Independents and 11 percent of Republicans.

The gap between party affiliation mirrors a recent Scott Rasmussen poll, which showed that Democrat voters broke with Republican and Independents on which groups they view as threats to the country. While Republicans and Independents viewed China and the Taliban as the greatest threats to the country, Democrats viewed Trump voters and the unvaccinated as the top threats. Less than half of Democrats saw China or the Taliban as serious threats.

Democrat voters clearly are following the media’s lead and viewpoint more so than their counterparts among Independents and Republicans. Democrat trust in the media had actually declined steadily, reaching a low of 51 percent in 2016 before rocketing back up to 72 percent in 2017. The media successfully convinced Democrat viewers that Trump was such a threat that they forgot their own growing distrust of the media. The media has been untrustworthy for decades, and they have proven that time and again over the last several years.

Around-the-clock Trump derangement syndrome has led Democrat voters to view Trump supporters as the greatest threat to the country while the media lies and censors in order to defend Joe Biden and advance his policies and COVID alarmism. The media no longer reports the news. It operates as the public relations arm of the left’s agenda, both by what it chooses to report and by what it chooses not to report. Viewers are being conditioned to hate those who oppose the Democrats’ agenda and view those who doubt the media as conspiracy theorists. As this poll shows, however, it’s not working all that well since most Americans no longer trust the media and even Democrats are slowly beginning to see through the façade.

Unplugging from the mainstream media is the best way to see how flawed and biased it really is. Regular citizens don’t need the New York Times or CNN to tell them what to think. Those who still trust these organizations don’t even realize that they’re being lied to, and it shows by the wide disparity in perception on almost every issue between Democrats and the rest of America.