Television news and newspapers are suffering historically low levels of public confidence, the results of an annual Gallup poll released Tuesday reveal.
In its national survey of U.S. American adults (18+), conducted June 1-15, Gallup polled public confidence in 14 institutions it has tracked annually since 1993, ranking them according to the percentage of Americans who say they have either “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in them.
Today, the level of confidence in television news (14%) is lower than that of any other institution, except Congress (9%).
Confidence in newspapers (17%) is third-lowest, topping only television news and Congress.
At 14%, confidence in television news is just three points above its record low of 11%, set last June. Likewise, confidence in the newspaper institution is teetering just one point above its lowest mark, recorded in 2022.
Differences of less than five percentage points between this year’s level and prior low points are not statistically significant, putting both newspapers and television news at their historic low-points.
Democrats place more faith in newspapers and television news than do Republicans.
Regarding television news, only six percent of Republicans have either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence, compared to 16% of both Democrats and Independents.
In the case of newspapers, 22% of Democrats express confidence in the institution, more than twice the 10% of Republicans who do so. Here, independents (16%) also have lower confidence than Democrats.
Democrats also have more confidence than Republicans in two other purveyors of information: public schools and institutions of higher learning.
Amid concerns about the U.S. educational system increasingly being used to promote far-left ideology, rather than to foster education, just 16% of Republicans report having confidence in public schools, less than half the 35% of Democrats who do so. Among all American adults, confidence stands at 27%.
The difference is even wider when it comes to higher education. Here, 23% of Republicans have faith in the institution, compared to 50% of Democrats and 38% of all U.S. adults.
