The low number comes via the Gallup poll, which says exactly 23 percent of Americans think newspapers are worth trusting.

But newspapers don’t stand alone. Confidence in television news has also been slipping — it’s tied with newspapers this year at 23 percent, which is slightly up from last year’s all-time low of 21 percent. Newspapers and television news rank near the bottom of a list of 16 “societal institutions,” according to the report. The only institutions television news and newspapers beat out this year are big business, organized labor, health maintenance organizations and Congress. Americans expressed the most confidence in the military, at 76 percent, and small businesses, at 65 percent.

Well. We can’t exactly recreate this poll, but we can ask the question this way:

Eli Sanders is The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won this,...

One reply on “Less Than a Quarter of Americans Have Confidence in Newspapers”

  1. Not to bring up the F word, but I am not surprised to hear this news after the failure of that recent public health ballot measure that was supported by every local newspaper and most of the local TV news stations.

    That said though, I wish there was some kind of science option in the poll. Is there a “societal institution” that would represent scientific consensus?

    Also, I’m very disturbed that “the military” was ranked highest in that poll.

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