Trump 1(for 1,000), Media 0(for 1,000):
Bottom Line: As is often the case, the most interesting stuff inside of accredited pollster data isn't what's readily reported. If you asked the average political observer what the greatest political contest currently is in the US, you'd likely get Trump vs. Media. Polling on media approval, trust, etc. is nothing new. It's been low. In fact media trust has hit all-time lows over the past year with just about every pollster who has tracked it for over a decade (Gallup and Pew Research specifically come to mind). But with the battle between Trump's characterization of many traditional media outlets being "Fake News" and many traditional media outlets openly rejecting journalistic decorum in favor of agenda driven reporting (Russian collusion with zero evidence for example), who's winning?
In the most recent NPR/PBS NewsHour Marist poll were these nuggets...
On the question of institutional trust:
- 60%: Intelligence communities
- 60%: The Courts
- 50%: Fair elections
- 37%: Trump administration
- 35%: Pollsters
- 30%: Media
- 29%: Congress
So to be sure we remain a generally cynical bunch of people - with six in ten Americans having trust in something being a high water mark. That being said if the media thought it was getting the best of the President, they'd appear to once again be wrong. More Americans would agree with the media generally being riddled with fake news than those who'd believe media outlets perpetuating daily angst, rumors and often falsely sourced information (even according to James Comey). Even if the media wanted to declare that at least they perform better than Congress, that's likely a misnomer as well. Over the years my research has demonstrated that most Americans don't approve of "Congress" as a body in general but most commonly do approve of their representatives. In other words, ask yourself this question...Do you approve of Congress? Then think about each of your three federal reps (Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio) and your House rep as the case may be. Do you approve with any of them specifically? Btw, another interesting piece of info from this poll...
On the question of which right has been the most overly restricted? It's religious liberty with 33% responding with that answer.
For the complete poll copy and paste this link into your browser: