Americans' confidence in newspapers and television news has fallen to all-time low points, according to the latest Gallup survey of institutions. Americans have the least confidence in Congress of all institutions named in the survey, but the news media institution comes in second from the bottom.
While Congress and the news media have never earned high confidence ratings, they have fallen in the rankings in recent years, Gallup notes.
Just 16% of U.S. adults now say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers and 11% in television news. Both are down 5 percentage points since last year, Gallup reports.
This is the fourth consecutive year that confidence in TV news is below 20%. A majority of Americans, 53%, now say they have very little or no confidence at all in TV news.
Republicans (5%) and independents (12%) both had the lowest confidence in newspapers on record, while Democrats (35%) had lower ratings in the past. Democrats' confidence in newspapers rose to the 42% to 46% range during the Donald Trump administration but fell when President Joe Biden took office.
Democrats also say they have higher confidence in TV news than Republicans and independents, Gallup points out. However, Democrats' and independents' confidence ratings are down significantly from last year and are now at historical low points: 20% and 8%, respectively. Only 8% of Republicans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in television news.
Gallup did not name specific television news networks or newspapers in its survey.
Gallup has tracked Americans' confidence in newspapers since 1973 and television news since 1993 as part of its annual polling about major U.S. institutions. Gallup interviews a minimum of 1,000 U.S. adults aged 18 and older for each Gallup Poll Social Series (GPSS) survey. The poll was conducted from June 1-20.