Media gains a little trust while covering Trump

Trust in the media has inched up during President Trump’s first six months, despite his turbulent relationship with the press, a new poll has found.

A July poll by Issues & Insights and the TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics found that 41% of respondents said they either had a lot of trust or quite a bit of trust in traditional media such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, National Public Radio and CBS News. Some 51% said they had either little trust or no trust at all, and 8% weren’t sure.

The trust of media while covering Mr. Trump, compared with the last six months of former President Joseph R. Biden’s term and reelection campaign, represents “a dramatically improved picture for media trust over the past year,” I&I and TIPP say.

“Maybe trust has risen, according to this poll, because President Trump has been bold enough to call them out, and maybe some of these news outlets will report differently because President Trump has kind of called their bluff,” said Russ Jones, a former journalist turned media consultant and doctoral candidate.

From February to July 2024, the TIPP Traditional Media Index, which ranges from 0 to 100, averaged 38.6 points for trust in the media, with a fluctuation between a high of 41.5 and a low of 36.7.

In Mr. Trump’s first six months, the average rose to 44.7 points, a roughly 16% jump.

“While it’s a jump under President Trump’s second term, these numbers are still very bad,” Christina Bellantoni, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg, wrote to The Washington Times. “The media has lost the overall trust of the American public, and that’s one reason why so many news organizations are struggling.”

When asked about alternative news media like The New York Post, The Washington Times and Newsmax, 36% of respondents said they either had quite a lot of trust or quite a bit of trust, while 55% said they had little or no trust, and 9% were unsure.

A similar pattern was seen with the Alternative Media Index. It averaged 34.5 points between February and July 2024, but averaged 41.3 during Mr. Trump’s first six months.

“If we’re talking about confidence levels have risen for alternative media, I think that’s because alternative media has worked really hard to earn a seat at the table and to be able to cover issues that traditionally, the CNNs and ABCs and NBCs of the world only had access,” Mr. Jones said.

Trust in media rose the most among Republicans, jumping from 25.2 to 41.1 points in the Traditional Media Index and from 31.5 to 45.4 points in the Alternative Media Index.

Independents also made gains in the indexes, with a jump from 32.6 to 36.2 points in the Traditional Media Index and 28.5 to 33.1 points in the Alternative Media Index.

Democrats lost trust in the Traditional Media Index, falling from 56.8 to 55.4 points, but stayed about the same in the Alternative Media Index.

Ms. Bellantoni said the lack of trust in the media appears to be the new normal.

“I don’t know that traditional ’trust in media’ as my parents’ generation knew it will ever return,” she wrote. She specifically mentioned the trust that former CBS Evening News broadcast Walter Cronkite had in the 1960s and 70s. Cronkite was often cited as “the most trusted man in America.”

The White House is known to call out the media when it feels outlets misreport the president’s actions. The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal are just two outlets that have faced consequences for reporting on the Gulf of America and Mr. Trump’s ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, respectively.

AP, a wire service that distributes news to outlets across the world, went to court to fight for the reinstatement of its reporters into the president’s press pool. The Journal was knocked from the press pool for Mr. Trump’s trip to Scotland.

During press briefings, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt often mentions what the administration views as good and bad reporting done by reporters sitting in the briefing room. The briefing room has also seen its fair share of changes — more outlets have been let in, and a “new media” seat has been created to give different outlets a chance at getting a seat in the coveted room and asking a question.

“I deeply oppose the booting of wire reporters and photographers from the press pool rotation. I’m all for letting more outlets in, but the witnessing of history is critical and the wire services have proven they can do it correctly, quickly and without fear or favor,” Ms. Bellantoni said. “Millions upon millions of people rely on them to be the eyes and ears.”

However, she noted that Mr. Trump “regularly takes questions from the press, something that Biden really failed to do during most of his term in office.”

Mr. Trump, from the beginning, has criticized the “radical left” media for stories that outlets have done on him.

“Trump is a master at commanding attention from the press, and he knows it,” Ms. Bellantoni said.

He ended federal funding for NPR and PBS. He won a multimillion-dollar settlement with Paramount Global over CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a financial hit that reportedly spurred the end of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

“He’s the master of calling out the quote, unquote ’fake news.’ It’s just the challenge is deciphering is it fake news because Mr. President, no offense, it’s because you don’t like the perspective, or is it fake truly, because it’s just bad information,” Mr. Jones said. “So that onus is on us as consumers, news consumers, to try to figure that out.”

The White House credited the newfound trust to Mr. Trump holding the press accountable.

“Since day one, President Trump and his entire administration have been holding the fake news accountable on behalf of the American people – making it more difficult for the legacy media to get away with being scribes for the Left’s agenda,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement.

The online national poll surveyed 1,421 adults from June 25-27.