Americans’ Trust in Media Hit a Record Low This Week. Only Public Media Can Restore It.

Wednesday’s government shutdown was the final nail in the coffin of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which officially closed after having its funding rescinded by the Trump administration this past summer. The end of the CPB will force local stations across the country to fend for themselves when it comes to meeting the informational needs of their communities. For better or (probably) worse, this means being pushed closer to the orbit of private funding.

The day after the CPB closed, Gallup released a poll showing that Americans’ trust in the media had reached a historic low, dipping below 30 percent for the first time. This measure of trust has been steadily declining since the 1970s, when the proportion of Americans who said they trust mass media to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly” hovered around 70 percent.

The media trust crisis is therefore largely a response to commercial media. As commercial media undergoes a historic transformation, we should insist on rebuilding a world-class public media system as the only effective counterbalance to what is poised to be a more consolidated and ultimately more censored media sector.

But these grim numbers do not capture how trust changes based on media business models. Applying the same “fully, accurately, and fairly” criteria to public media networks, a July poll by Peak Insights found that a majority of Americans trust public and local stations. The media trust crisis is therefore largely a response to commercial media. As commercial media undergoes a historic transformation, we should insist on rebuilding a world-class public media system as the only effective counterbalance to what is poised to be a more consolidated and ultimately more censored media sector.

Excessive corporate concentration in media did not begin with Brendan Carr’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) but has been supercharged by it. The big media conglomerates (e.g., Paramount Skydance) reportedly want to get even bigger to satisfy shareholders. The FCC’s regulatory pen must sign off on such deals, and it has not been shy about dangling that pen in front of parent companies’ most troublesome children—ABC, CBS, and perhaps soon, CNN. By now it seems clear that regulatory favor can be won by taking action against disfavored speech from the FCC’s least favorite late-night comics. Industry groups intent on eliminating ownership limits and pursuing ever-bigger deals have found a friendly regulator, and the regulator has found a powerful tool for influencing the media’s political disposition. It’s a match made in heaven for everyone, except an increasingly skeptical and distrustful public.

The merger spree is almost certain to lead to a greater conservative bent on legacy networks like CBS, which is reportedly set to name Bari Weiss, founder of right-wing outlet The Free Press, as its top editor. But while partisan bias is often cited as a leading cause for mistrust, a greater proportion of Americans believe that news organizations are more “influenced by corporate or financial interests” than “government or political interests,” according to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll. Under this administration, we’re seeing these pressures converge.

The same 2024 poll showed 91 percent of US adults agree that press freedom is at least somewhat important to society, with 73 percent saying that it’s “extremely important.” And yet two-thirds believe the press is not completely free to report the news. What the polling makes clear is that Americans still want a free and trustworthy press—but the collapse of public media leaves fewer places to find it. Commercial outlets are built to maximize profit, not to safeguard democratic accountability. If trust in media is collapsing, then a revitalized public system is the strongest foundation on which to rebuild it.