A plurality of Americans “mostly believe” the news stories that are being reported on by the media, according to a Hill-HarrisX survey released on Thursday.
The poll of 1,204 registered voters shows that 41 percent of participants “believe most news stories, but do not trust certain sources.”
Twenty-six percent of those polled said just the opposite: They don’t buy into most news stories, but do trust certain sources.
An equal amount — 17 percent — either almost aways or almost never believe stories from the news media.
When broken down by party, just 24 percent of Republicans surveyed said that they believe news stories from the media for the most part, compared to 49 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of independents saying the same.
The overall finding is in line with similar polls conducted by Gallup and Pew Research in recent months.
According to a Gallup survey released earlier this year, 41 percent of Americans trust the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” which marks a four-point drop since 2018.
A Pew Research poll released over the summer, meanwhile, found a broad mistrust across U.S. institutions, including the media. Sixty one percent of Americans said that the news media intentionally ignores stories that are important to the public.
President Trump as well as other conservative lawmakers have helped fuel distrust in the media, often bashing various outlets as “fake news” and claimed on multiple occasions that the press is the “enemy of the people.”
The Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online between Nov. 8 and Nov. 9. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. Sampling error among partisan voters is higher.
—Tess Bonn
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.