Claire Bernish
June 14, 2016

In ten years, Americans’ confidence in television and print news crashed to an all-time low, according to the latest Gallup poll.

After mainstream media coverage of the massacre in Orlando on Sunday largely failed to dig further after multiple witnesses came forward suggesting more than one attacker was involved, that lack of trust seems logical.

While trust in media crashed by 10 percent — newspapers hit their lowest confidence rating since 2007, at 20 percent — other institutions fared significantly worse.

Confidence in banks, which tumbled dramatically following the financial crisis of 2008, plummeted by 22 percent — the largest loss of any institution Gallup surveyed — from 49 percent in 2006, to just 27 percent ten years later.

Virtually no one has faith in Congress anymore, as the notorious legislative body nose-dived by 10 percent — to a paltry 9 percent.

“Congress has the ignominious distinction of being the only institution sparking little or no confidence in a majority of Americans,” Gallup noted.

Both the Supreme Court and organized labor experienced only minor drops in public confidence.

Overall trust in institutions fell by 6 percent over the last decade, and though the aforementioned results match the cynicism so permeating the United States in 2016, several results might come as a surprise.

Despite endlessly questionable foreign policy maneuvers, confidence in the presidency grew by 3 points — from 33 percent in 2006, to 36 percent now.

SNIP