Americans’ confidence in the mass media has plunged to a new historic low, with just 28% saying they trust newspapers, television or radio “to fully, accurately and fairly” report the news, according to Gallup’s latest survey. This marks the first time Gallup’s trust metric has dipped below 30%.
That’s down sharply from 31% in 2024 and from 40% five years ago. Meanwhile, 70% of U.S. adults now say they have “not very much” (36%) or “none at all” (34%) confidence in the media.
Partisan breakdowns are stark. Among Republicans, trust has dropped to 8% – the first time in Gallup’s trends that it has fallen to single digits. Independents report 27% trust, matching last year’s low, while Democrats register a slim majority at 51%.
A generational divide is also clear: in the aggregated data from 2023 to 2025, 43% of Americans aged 65+ trust the media, compared with as low as 28% in younger age groups.
Gallup’s survey was conducted by phone from September 2-16, 2025, polling a random sample of 1,000 U.S. adults with a margin of error of ±4 percentage points.
The findings highlight a deepening crisis of credibility for the American press. With fewer than three in ten Americans expressing trust, publishers face an uphill battle in sustaining legitimacy. Deepening skepticism creates challenges for subscription, donation and membership-based models, and may force news organisations to double down on transparency, sourcing and corrections to rebuild confidence.
The results also underline a worrying generational gap, with younger audiences showing especially low trust in media.
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