Poll: Voter Distrust of Political News Sets New Record

Voter distrust in political news has hit a new high since the previous record measured last June, with less than one-third still finding it trustworthy.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds 54% of likely voters in the U.S. now say they do not trust political news. That’s up from last June’s previous high of 46% and is fueled by skepticism and distrust from significant majorities of Republicans and unaffiliated voters.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Republicans and 58% of unaffiliated voters say “No” when asked whether they “trust the political news you are getting?” Only 38% of Democrats agree with the majority, while 45% still say they trust the political news they’re getting and another 17% are not sure.

Only 9% of Republicans are not sure whether they trust the political news the media is covering.

Interestingly, men (35%) are slightly more likely than women (29%) to trust political news, though men are also more likely to identify as being a Republican. Distrust is broadly shared among all age groups, including just 31% of 18-39 year olds, 32% of 40-64 year olds and 30% of those 65 years-old or older.

Only 36% did not trust political news in January of 2017, but that number was in the 40s from 2014 through 2016. Just 32% do trust the political news they are getting, down slightly from surveys since 2016. Another 15% are not sure.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters in the U.S. was conducted on April 18-19, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. See methodology.