The news still has a trust issue

The Future. The news industry has been having a rough go. And if the fall of local news wasn’t enough, a recent Gallup survey found that trust in newspapers and television news has dropped to all-time lows. The culprit? America’s deepening party divide.

Trust me?
American trust in the news media hits an all-time low.

• According to a Gallup survey, Americans’ confidence in newspapers and TV news has hit a historic new low — a paltry 16% and 11%, respectively.
• TV news is the second-least trusted institution in the country, only outperforming Congress in ratings of trustworthiness.

Divided we fall
The trust fall is due to deepening polarization in America, said Gallup, noting clear links between partisanship and levels of trust. Just 5% of Republicans said they had “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in newspapers, while at least 35% of Democrats said they did.

But the collapse isn’t just limited to newspapers. Overall confidence in institutions across America is at all-time lows, ranging from the Supreme Court to the private sector. In other words, no one’s safe.