US Public Trust in News Organizations Down to New Low, Some actively pollute the Information Landscape

Only 26 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the news media, the lowest level over the last five years, according to an annual report released by Gallup and the Knight Foundation surveying Americans for insights into how they view the press.

The report found that 72 percent of Americans believe national newsrooms are capable of serving the public, but that they do not believe they're well intentioned. Only 23 percent said that they believe national newsrooms care about the best interests of their audiences.

Meanwhile, Americans are having more difficulty than ever determining what to believe. Some 61 percent of respondents said the increase in information across the media landscape has made it harder to sort bad information from good, Xinhua reported.

"None of this is particularly surprising, though it is, without question, alarming," said CNN in its report of the survey. "The media landscape has fractured and it's not uncommon to now see the same story presented in entirely different ways to different audiences."

"Our shared reality has given way to algorithmically rendered realities. Some of the most popular media and political figures in the country actively pollute the information landscape. Many profit from propaganda that affirms the worldviews of their audiences and attacks the press in dishonest ways," it added.