While the media spins furiously to build up Kamala Harris, worth noting that trust in the major news media among 12th grade students (in other words, first time voters this year), according to one recent survey, is below 20 percent:
But the matter gets more interesting as you break out the numbers by political party (below). First, notice that institutional trust overall is lowest among Democrats (who typically want our government institutions, at least, to get bigger and have more money and control for some perverse reason), and highest among Republicans. Second, Republicans’ trust in the national news media is slightly higher than Democrats (16.4% to 15.1%), but for independents, media trust is only 8.8%. (Not sure why this breakdown doesn’t add up to the 18.8% of the aggregated results.)
I suspect these findings are not far off from the general population. Keep in mind the cliche that it will be independent voters who will decide this election, and if so few people now trust them, is flacking so shamelessly for Harris really doing themselves—or the nation—a favor?
