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Yet Another Gallup Poll Shows Declining Trust in the Media. Here are Some Reasons Why

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File

It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that most Americans no longer place their trust in the activist media as they used to. Confidence in the once-vaunted Fourth Estate has plunged considerably over the past two decades. But it dropped even more drastically during the 2016 campaign when activist media outlets threw off all pretense of objectivity in order to resist the evil Orange Man What Is Bad™.

Gallup released the findings of another poll showing that trust in the media remains at an all-time low. From the report:

At 34%, Americans’ trust in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” is essentially unchanged from last year and just two points higher than the lowest that Gallup has recorded, in 2016 during the presidential campaign.

Just 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the media, and 27% have “a fair amount.” Meanwhile, 28% of U.S. adults say they do not have very much confidence and 38% have none at all in newspapers, TV and radio. Notably, this is the first time that the percentage of Americans with no trust at all in the media is higher than the percentage with a great deal or a fair amount combined.

The polling company noted that “The percentage of Americans with a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media has not been at the majority level since 2003, although before that — in three readings in the 1970s and seven readings between 1997 and 2003 — it was the norm.”

Predictably, attitudes toward the media fell largely on party lines, with 57% of Republican respondents indicating they “do not have any confidence” in the press and 29% saying “they do not have very much”

Among Democrats, the majority still indicate they have at least a modicum of trust in the Fourth Estate. But Gallup’s most recent survey found that only 18% have a “great deal of trust” in the media.

What is noteworthy about these findings are attitudes among Independents, 27% of which indicated a level of confidence. “Meanwhile, 41% of independents say they have no trust at all and 32% do not have very much,” according to Gallup.

Over the past seven years, the media has given plenty of reasons not to trust their coverage of politics and culture. But one does not have to go back very far to find examples of media malfeasance. In fact, if we hop in the Wayback Machine and travel way back to a time known as “Over the Past Week,” we can find multiple instances in which the press has demonstrated why they are not trustworthy.

Only a few days ago, media activist Margaret Sullivan penned an op-ed for The Washington Post in which she blatantly argued that members of the press should be even more biased in their coverage of former President Donald Trump should he decide to run for president again in 2024. The author insisted that instead of adhering to “old-style performative neutrality,” and “taking everything down the middle,” media activists ought to “be thinking about what coverage serves the public best.”

Of course, Sullivan appears to believe that going full “Orange Man Bad” is what “serves the public best.”

The author even suggested that news shows should not be concerned with having an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on their programming.

It means members of the press should not bother to legitimize people who question the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. They should not worry about having an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on television programming.

Doesn’t exactly make you want to put your trust in the activist media, does it?

Then, we have a recent exchange between Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and members of the press. Video footage of the confrontation went viral on social media. Ever since Lake won her primary election, Democrats have been attacking her for daring to question the outcome of the 2020 presidential race. But during the conference, she exposed just how hypocritical these people are by bringing 150 examples of Democrats denying election results in the past:

Oh, wow, look at this. This is from Joe Biden’s press secretary. “Reminder, Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams.” Democrats saying that. Is that an election denier? Oh, look at this. Just heard Republican Ryan Costello said it would be difficult for Stacey Abrams to win because she lost her state bid, but yet she’s still claiming she never lost. This is Hillary Clinton: “Trump is an illegitimate president.” Is she an election denier?

Don’t bother to Google reports of lefties complaining about these people refusing to accept the results of an election because they don’t exist.

Last but not least, Newsbusters published a report noting how the Big Three evening news networks ignored news that a Russian oligarch paid Hunter Biden’s real estate company $40 million. Author Jeffrey Clark wrote:

Yelena Baturina (left) and Hunter Biden (right) “Yelena Baturina, the billionaire widow of a corrupt Moscow mayor” reportedly invested $40 million into Hunter Biden’s real estate company, the Daily Mail revealed in an Oct. 17 exclusive. The investment reportedly took place while now-President Joe Biden was vice president during the Obama administration.

Baturina’s brother Viktor Baturin reportedly told the Daily Mail that the money was “‘a payment to enter the American market.’” But the Big Three evening news shows — ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News — failed to cover the Daily Mail’s report during their Oct. 17 evening broadcasts.

The press was gung-ho about trying to tie Trump to Russia and attempted to convince the public that he was in Putin’s pocket. But when President Joe Biden’s son is revealed to have suspicious dealings with Russia, we get a rousing chorus of crickets.

Of course, these are but a few examples demonstrating why the media is not worthy of our trust. It is but an eyedropper of water in an ocean vaster than the Pacific. There is a reason I refer to them as the “activist media.” These are not journalists seeking to report the truth to the public; they are politically-motivated operatives using their platforms to influence rather than inform. As long as this remains the case, trust in the press won’t ever rise to a majority, nor should it.

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