Americans likely to trust local news more than national news, says Hill reporter

The Hill campaign reporter Reid Wilson told Hill.TV on Friday that Americans tend to have more trust in local news organizations than national ones. 

“I think that people have a lot more trust in, especially their local news organizations than they would in some of these big national ones, ” Wilson told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball on “What America’s Thinking.” 

Polling within the last year shows that trust in local outlets is up. 

The Poynter Media Trust Survey, released in August, found that 76 percent of Americans said they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in their local television station, while 73 percent said the same about their local newspapers. 

Only 55 percent of Americans said they had trust in national networks news, while 59 percent said the same about national newspapers. 

Wilson said that opinion bias that has been injected into national outlets, especially cable news, has contributed to the decline in trust. 

“But when we say ‘media,’ people sort of default to these national cable news outlets that have a bent by design, that’s how they make their money,” he said. 

— Julia Manchester


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