Confidence in TV News Hits New Low

Americans’ confidence in television news has dropped to a new low, with just 21 percent of adults saying they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the news, a new Gallup Poll reveals.

That’s down from 27 percent last year, from 35 percent in 2003, and from 46 percent when Gallup began tracking confidence in TV news in 1993.

The loss of confidence is especially marked among liberals and moderates. Confidence among liberals has plunged from 30 percent last year to 19 percent, and it has dropped from 30 percent to 20 percent among moderates. Among conservatives, confidence has dipped only one percentage point, from 23 percent to 22 percent.

Younger Americans are more likely to have confidence in TV news. Confidence stands at 28 percent among 18-to-29-year-olds and 22 percent among 30-to-49-year-olds, but at just 16 percent among 50-to-64-year-olds and 21 percent among those 65 and older.

Americans’ confidence in newspapers has also been on the decline. Only 25 percent of those polled said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers, down from 28 percent last year, 37 percent in 2000, and 51 percent in 1979.

Confidence in newspapers was highest among Democrats, 37 percent, but just 20 percent among Republicans.

“Americans have grown more negative about the media in recent years, as they have about many other U.S. institutions and the direction of the country in general,” Gallup observed.

TV networks “and the news media as a whole,” Gallup adds, “will have to renew their efforts to show Americans that they deserve a higher level of confidence than what they enjoy today.”