Overall Trust in Institutions Continues to Sharply Decline

Gallup: Americans are less confident in major U.S. institutions than they were a year ago, with significant declines for 11 of the 16 institutions tested and no improvements for any. The largest declines in confidence are 11 percentage points for the Supreme Court — as reported in late June before the court issued controversial rulings on gun laws and abortion — and 15 points for the presidency, matching the 15-point drop in President Joe Biden’s job approval rating since the last confidence survey in June 2021… This year’s poll marks new lows in confidence for all three branches of the federal government — the Supreme Court (25%), the presidency (23%) and Congress. Five other institutions are at their lowest points in at least three decades of measurement, including the church or organized religion (31%), newspapers (16%), the criminal justice system (14%), big business (14%) and the police (Gallup). 

Axios: Television news is today considered the second-least trusted institution in the country, following Congress, according to the poll. The trust fall in the news media been driven mostly by Republicans. Just 5% of Republicans said they had “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in newspapers, compared to 35% of Democrats. Only 8% of Republicans said they had “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in TV news, compared to 20% of Democrats. Independents’ views are generally closer to Republicans’ (Axios). 

Hugh Hewitt: I believe this. The first question is: Why? Second: How to repair (Twitter)?