US citizens have displayed a decline in trust in their national media outlets, as per a recent poll by the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Over half of respondents (53 percent), said they are "very concerned" that the US press will mislead them during the election, while 30 percent admitted they are "somewhat concerned." Only 16 percent noted they are "not very or not at all concerned."
Nearly half (47 percent) fear that US media will jump to conclusions and present uncorroborated and unverified information, while 34 percent are somewhat concerned, bringing the total number of those worried to a whopping 81 percent.
Even if the US media reports factual information, it could still demonstrate a biased approach, according to 77 percent of American respondents (with 44 percent highly concerned about the prospect and 33 percent somewhat concerned).
Similarly, US journalists using artificial intelligence (AI) to create stories makes 72 percent of Americans disquiet.
Other numbers show that the majority of US citizens feel worried that US media may focus on divisions and controversies and pay too much attention to the election at the expense of topics and issues that affect common people and their families.
According to the Federalist, a US conservative online publication, the study echoes the findings of a Gallup survey published last autumn. The Gallup found that 39 percent of Americans said they have zero confidence in mass media - an all-time high since 1972 when the pollster started surveying the issue – while 29 percent acknowledged they had "not very much trust" in the mainstream press.
The conservative news outlet argued that corporate press has been shooting itself in the foot for some time by publishing dishonest stories. The trend significantly intensified during Donald Trump's tenure when the seemingly reputable media outlets circulated the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, peddled the now debunked "dirty dossier" by ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, and completely snubbed Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" story, to name but a few instances of questionable coverage.
The situation has hardly improved since, with the US press misleading the American public about the Ukraine conflict; silencing the fact that the Kiev regime has bombed Donbass civilians for a decade; completely ignoring the death of American journalist Gonzalo Lira while in Ukrainian custody; and most recently reviving the already busted Havana syndrome story. As such, it's hardly surprising that more and more Americans tend to search for information from alternative and independent platforms.