While Donald Trump has made a personal crusade out of crucifying the media, Americans are increasingly gaining confidence in the press, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. And in part, the press appears to be benefitting from Trump’s disastrous first year in office and what a diabolical blowhard he is. Chris Kahn writes:
The poll of more than 14,300 people found that the percentage of adults who said they had a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the press rose to 48 percent in September from 39 percent last November. Earlier this year, Trump branded the entire industry as the “enemy of the American people.”
The percentage of those who said they had “hardly any” confidence in the press dropped to 45 percent from 51 percent over the same period.
So overall confidence rose by nine points while diehard skeptics of the press decreased. And how's Trump faring?
Reuters/Ipsos, which tracked confidence in major institutions every couple of months after the 2016 presidential election, found in late January that 52 percent of Americans had a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the new president’s executive branch. That dropped to 51 percent in the May survey and to 48 percent in the latest poll. Trump took office in January.
Let's face it, it's still pretty unimaginable that 48 percent of Americans have any confidence in Trump whatsoever, but at least those numbers are moving in the right direction. Another bonus, the drop off isn't just due to Democrats.
From January to September, the percentage of people who had a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the executive branch dropped 6 percentage points among Republicans and 3 points among Democrats.
Sometimes the best PR is simply standing next to the biggest buffoon in the room.
On a more serious note, our country needs the press to thrive and the press needs Americans to believe it's doing a good job. Our democracy will be lost without either part of that equation.