The media trust gap between conservatives and liberals continues to

The polarized views on just about every political and cultural issue in America have been underscored again in a new study from the non-partisan Pew Research Center. The study reveals a Grand Canyon-sized gap between Republican and Democratic perspectives on the national news media.  

Just five years ago, 70 percent of Republicans said they had at least some trust in national news organizations. In 2021, that share has been cut in half, with just 35 percent feeling the same way. 

Meanwhile, Democrats are peachy keen on what they’re seeing and hearing from the national news media, with 78 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying they have “a lot” or “some” trust in the Fourth Estate nationally. When breaking down the numbers between self-identified liberals and conservatives, the gap widens to 53 points. Eighty-three percent of liberal Democrats have at least some trust in the national media, while just 30 percent of conservative Republicans do. 

Pew’s findings aren’t an outlier. A 2020 deep dive from Gallup showed that Democrats trust in the media approached record highs during the Trump presidency, while among GOP voters it fell to an all-time low. 

I asked longtime media observer and 14-time Emmy-winning journalist Bernie Goldberg what’s behind these numbers. 

Goldberg explained that the reason Democrats and liberals trust the mainstream media is that their values are reflected by said media. So, if you’re a liberal and see your liberal values masquerading as straight news, you’re perfectly happy.

The reason conservatives aren’t happy is that most of the news comes from liberal news organizations, said the author of the 2001 New York Times bestseller “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News.” 

“Almost all of the major news organizations have a liberal slant to their coverage of stories, and certainly on their editorial page,” he explained. “So, Republicans and conservatives see bias. And liberals see honesty. But liberals are wrong, and conservatives are right, in this particular case.”

To Goldberg’s point, for conservatives, the sentiment you hear is consistent: Too many journalists incorporate their own opinions and biases into straight news reporting. And since most of the national political media is based in Manhattan (very liberal) and Washington, D.C. (extremely liberal), it’s almost impossible for conformity and groupthink not to steer the perspectives left by those who seem to have gotten into the business not to report but to advocate. 

The recent Reporting on the new Texas abortion law is a prime example of advocacy in action, as noted in an op-ed published by the non-profit Poynter Institute for Media Studies. “Texas Abortion Law Leads To Emotional Media Moments in a Busy News Day,” reads its headline before noting CNN anchor Kate Bolduan‘s report on the new law. 

“[It] led to some emotional moments in the media coverage, including this from CNN’s Kate Bolduan,”…