According to Gallup, Americans’ trust in media has reached a new all-time low. Polling shows that just 28% of respondents express a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report news “fully, accurately and fairly.”
As the renowned polling firm noted, “When Gallup began measuring trust in the news media in the 1970s, between 68% and 72% of Americans expressed confidence in reporting. However, by the next reading in 1997, public confidence had fallen to 53%. Media trust remained just above 50% until it dropped to 44% in 2004, and it has not risen to the majority level since.”
In other words, fewer than half of all Americans expressed trust in media as far back as 2004 – long before Donald Trump came along as a serious presidential contender complaining about “fake news.” The effort to point fingers at Trump for Americans’ low opinion of journalists is misguided. The obvious reason for widespread skepticism about media accuracy and fairness is provided by news agencies and their reporters on a daily basis.
Nowhere is the media more prone to veering from truth and accuracy than on climate reporting. Mainstream media outlets are for the most part firmly entrenched as true believers in the Church of Climatology.
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