This Just In: Majority of Americans Distrust News Media

In a survey that should be alarming to legitimate news media outlets everywhere, a new Gallup Poll shows Americans' distrust of what they see and read in the media is reaching epidemic proportions.

The poll shows more than half -- 55 percent -- have little or no trust in the news media's reporting of the news.  They have little or no confidence that the mass media are reporting the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Only 44 percent have a great deal or fair amount of trust in what the media tell them.

The Director of the Gallup Poll, Dr. Frank Newport, says these are the most negative views of the media Gallup has ever measured.

It gets worse.  A majority of Americans (60%) continue to believe the media are biased on one side or the other.  47% say the media are too liberal and 13% say they are too conservative, on par with what Gallup found last year.

This view is divided, more or less, along party lines.  75 percent of Republicans and conservatives say the media are too liberal.  Democrats and liberals lean more toward saying the media are "just about right," at 57% and 42%, respectively.

Moderates and independents are split down the middle. 50% of independents say the media are too liberal and 50% of moderates say they are just about right.

via Majority in U.S. Continues to Distrust the Media, Perceive Bias.

Newport says while none of these views is statistically different from what he found last year, the trend lines of the past decade show steady increases in the numbers of people who just don't trust the media.

What's worse, most media executives don't appear to care what people think.