Confidence in television news and newspapers remains rock bottom, results of the latest survey of U.S. adult citizens by The Economist/YouGov released Tuesday show.
According to the national survey conducted July 25-27, just 5%, or one in twenty, Americans have “a great deal” of confidence in newspapers – while eight times as many (40%) have “very little.”
Adult Democrats are the most likely to trust what they read in newspapers. Still, only 10% have a great deal of confidence, while 18% have very little. Among both Independents and Republicans, the percent voicing “great trust” is in single digits, while about half say they have “very little” confidence.
When comes to television news, the level of confidence is even lower. Only 5% say they have a great deal of trust in what they’re being told, but nearly half (47%) say they have very little confidence.
Once again, Democrats are more positive than Independents and Republicans, but they’re still more skeptical than trusting, with 7% expressing great confidence and 25% very little confidence. In contrast, fully 56% of both Independents and Republicans have very little faith in television news.
Adult Americans’ distrust in both newspapers and television news appears to jump once they hit 30. Among 18-29 year-olds, 24% have very little confidence in newspapers, but that jumps to between 41-45% for older groups.
Regarding television news, 33% of 18-29 year-olds have very little confidence in what’s reported, compared to 53% of those 30-44, 48% of those 45-64 and 51% of those 65 and older.
The dour results released Tuesday are consistent with the findings of previous surveys by The Economist/YouGov and Gallup, as neither industry has succeeded in reducing its trust deficit with the nation’s news consumers.
Read Full Article: https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/07/28/americans-confidence-tv-news-and-newspapers-remains-rock
