| Gallup and the Knight Foundation have been taking the public’s pulse on attitudes toward the media for years. But they’ve never seen anything like the collapse of trust they found in their new survey of over 5,000 Americans.
Only one-in-four respondents agreed with the statement that “most national news organizations do not intend to mislead, misinform, or persuade the public.” Half of Americans now believe national news organizations intentionally mislead, misinform or persuade the public to push a particular agenda.
And it’s not just Republicans who have adopted the most negative views of the media. An astonishing 55% of political independents say there is a great deal of political bias in news coverage. Here’s our take: the reason people have come to believe the media is intentionally trying to deceive us is…because they are. Consider the major stories of the last several years: Russia collusion hoax, Covid lies, Hunter Biden laptop (not a hoax), “cleanest election ever.” Need we go on? |
