How Low Can You Go: New Gallup Poll On the Trust-in-Media Limbo

Mainstream media members professed shock this week when the White House took over access and pool assignments in the press briefing room from the White House Correspondents Association. They professed even more shock when people scoffed at the argument that this was an affront to democracy and transparency. 

Perhaps there may be a good argument in that response, but the American public simply doesn’t have any trust in the media to be transparent and honest. A new survey from Gallup shows that trust in their integrity has fallen to yet another all-time low, unsurprisingly:

GALLUP: Americans’ trust in the mass media is at its lowest point in more than five decades. pic.twitter.com/EBwH7h3Nd2

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) February 27, 2025

About two-thirds of Americans in the 1970s trusted the “mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio” either “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to “[report] the news fully, accurately and fairly.” By the next measurement in 1997, confidence had fallen to 53%, and it has gradually trended downward since 2003. Americans are now divided into rough thirds, with 31% trusting the media a great deal or a fair amount, 33% saying they do “not [trust it] very much,” and 36%, up from 6% in 1972, saying they have no trust at all in it.

The media ranks only above Congress in their institutional list. Newspapers have a -30 net trust deficit (18/48), and TV news fares even worse at -44 (12/56) overall. What scores above media? Big business, the presidency, Big Tech (!), organized religion, the Supreme Court … pretty much everyone. Except Congress (-51, 9/60) as mentioned above, but is always worth mentioning again.

There is certainly a partisan component to this, but it’s no longer Republicans who are the outliers. Gallup ties this to “the Trump era,” but the trajectory for independents mirrors that of Republicans:

Whereas about a third of U.S. adults say they have no trust at all in the mass media, 59% of Republicans hold this view — a view that saw a particularly sharp increase between 2015 and 2017, when it rose 21 percentage points to 48%. Republicans’ lack of trust in the media topped 50% for the first time in 2020 and has since remained at the majority level. Lack of trust is also up sharply among independents, now 42%, while it continues to be low — 6% this year — among Democrats.

Gee, why might distrust have risen after 2020 among both Republicans and independents? Among the latter, distrust has increased eight points in the past five years, going from 34% to 42%. During that same period, the Protection Racket Media refused to pursue the obvious evidence of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline into incompetence — and openly derided those who dared to raise the subject. The White House Correspondents Association did nothing to force the White House to answer concerns after repeated instances of Biden’s incoherence, at least starting in April 2022 when the Easter Bunny chased Biden off the rope line to prevent him from talking to reporters and attendees:

Only after the debate in June 2024 would the news orgs that comprise the WHCA address Biden’s cognitive decline in any seriousness. Despite their attempts to retcon this point after Biden withdrew from the election, media outlets — especially WHCA members — eagerly regurgitated the White House talking points on “cheap fakes,” Biden’s childhood stutter, and claims that Biden was still Sharp As A Tack!® and running rings around his aides while Biden stumbled on stairs and got lost on stages. 

Now the same people who mocked and derided those who questioned Biden’s cognitive state want to explain to us how the cover-up worked. It needs no explanation; we saw it unfold in real time. Thanks to the refusal of the Protection Racket Media to report on Biden’s senility, we never did get an answer as to who actually was running the executive branch, and who was benefiting from the cover-up. And while people like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein rushed forward after the debate to detail how they and Democrat donors knew Biden wasn’t competent for the job since at least 2023, no one in the mainstream media bothered to report that while Biden and the cover-up team pushed for a second term in office. 

You can only pull the “don’t trust your own lyin’ eyes” routine for so long before people stop trusting you. Democrats still trust the media because the mainstream media platforms their propaganda. Like this, as David noted earlier:

Mainstream media: We are necessary for democracy because of our commitment to truth!

Also mainstream media: https://t.co/HZzgt7nofV

— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) February 27, 2025

The Protection Racket Media peddles unreality, and then wonders why people mistrust and despise their product. The Biden cover-up will haunt them for decades, unless and until everyone who participated in it gets shown the door. 

As for the WHCA and their removal from control of the pool and access to the briefing room, that’s worthy of debate. There should be some attention paid to how traveling pools in particular are chosen, for instance. But as Hugh Hewitt writes today, why should we trust the same White House press “aristocracy” that served as Joe Biden’s blocking line over the past four years?

Now Trump is breaking the guild and I and most alternative media of the center-left and center-right are not unhappy at all with the new developments (and I have never wanted nor will ever want, a seat in the press room or on the plane.) Most competitors of legacy media just want a level playing field.  

There is zero reason for there to be a press room anywhere. There is zero reason for a WHCA. And goodness knows there is zero reason for “the nerd prom.” It is time to fairly and, on a rotation, perhaps leavened by lottery, to admit journalists to the press room and into the “pool.” 

The audience for legacy media is collapsing, and its guild members shudder whenever another block in its wall of privilege protecting the remnants of its influence falls. The country doesn’t notice and doesn’t mind. Press on with fairness as your guide, President Trump. Press on with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. Avoid the Constitution’s third rails. Mix it up. Bravo. 

At the very least, try repairing the breach with your consumers before asserting that you have an indispensable role in reporting the truth. The first step in that process would be to start reporting the truth, when it matters, not when all other options have been eclipsed. 

Addendum: The Protection Racket Media has gone full-out to propagandize for the Bureaucratic State. And so far, it’s not working — but we need to make sure that independent platforms like ours remain in play to fight against it. Please join the fight! Become a HotAir VIP member or upgrade your existing membership today and use the code FIGHT for 60% off and get the media deal of a lifetime!