from Statista.com
— this post authored by Felix Richter
Over the past few months, Donald Trump has made it pretty clear what he thinks of the press.
Having repeatedly called out internationally renowned news organizations such as The New York Times and CNN for allegedly spreading “fake news”, he took things to another level on Friday, when he labelled the mainstream news media “the enemy of the American People”. Reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly should be one of the basic requirements for any news outlet, and yet, more and more Americans, including President Trump, are under the impression that the mass media fail to do just that.
According to polling company Gallup, Americans’ trust in mass media has dropped to a new low in 2016, with only 32 percent of U.S. adults expressing at least a fair amount of confidence in the mass media to serve as an unbiased chronicler of current affairs.
Looking in more detail, Gallup reports that the level of trust in the media varies greatly depending on political preference. While Republicans have traditionally viewed the media more critically than Democrats, the divergence in how both groups assess the press has never been greater. Just 14 percent of Republicans expressed their trust in the media prior to Donald Trump’s election in November while 50 percent of Democrats felt the media was reporting fairly and accurately. Following Trump’s repeated attacks against the “failing” and “dishonest” press, it can only be assumed that the level of trust among his supporters has fallen even further since the poll was conducted in September 2016.
This chart shows how Americans’ trust in mass media has changed over the past two decades.
You will find more statistics at Statista.
