The bad news: Just 23 percent of Americans told Gallup they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers, the same percentage who said they trust TV news. The good news: Both are still more popular than big business, organized labor, HMOs and Congress.
Trust in TV new actually ticked up slightly from last year, when 21 percent expressed confidence in it, compared to 25 percent who expressed confidence in newspapers. Newspapers peaked in 1979, when 51 percent of people surveyed said they had confidence in newspapers. TV news peaked in 1993, the first year Gallup asked the question, at 46 percent.
Politics informed confidence: 31 percent of liberals, 25 percent of moderates, and 15 percent of conservatives expressed confidence in papers. Liberals and moderates came around on TV news in the last year, while conservatives’ confidence in that medium fell as well, to 15 percent.
America’s most trusted institution is the military, according to Gallup. Its least trusted is Congress.
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