{"id":8669,"date":"2019-11-20T04:26:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T12:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=8669"},"modified":"2019-11-26T06:14:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T14:14:46","slug":"no-one-believes-anything-voters-worn-out-by-a-fog-of-political-news-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=8669","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;\u2018No One Believes Anything\u2019: Voters Worn Out by a Fog of Political News&#8221;, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">By <span class=\"css-1baulvz\">Sabrina Tavernise<\/span> and <span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\">Aidan Gardiner,\u00a0Nov.18, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\"><em>Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin. Many Americans are throwing up their hands and tuning it all out.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">WASHINGTON \u2014 In upstate New York, Travis Trudell got an alert on his phone Wednesday morning telling him the impeachment hearings had started. He turned on Disney Plus instead. In Wisconsin, Jerre Corrigan never considered watching. She spent the day giving a math lesson to third graders. In Idaho, Russell Memory worked a busy day as a computer programmer and figured he\u2019d catch up in a few weeks when the hearings were over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">The Democrats in Congress took their case against President Trump to the public last week. But after hours of testimony, thousands of news reports and days of streaming headlines, one thing was clear: A lot of Americans weren\u2019t listening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s harder now \u2014 they want to grab you with those headlines,\u201d said Ms. Corrigan on Wednesday night from her home in Stevens Point, Wis. \u201cTrump did this, Trump did that. You have to go in and really research it. And I don\u2019t think a lot of people do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">She added of the hearing: \u201cI just don\u2019t know what to think. You would have to know the facts, and I don\u2019t know that I\u2019m getting the facts from the media right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">In this volatile political moment, information, it would seem, has never been more crucial. The country is in the midst of impeachment proceedings against a president for the third time in modern history. A high-stakes election is less than a year away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\">\n<div class=\"css-ke163a\" data-testid=\"article-companion-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"newsletter-module\" class=\"css-48vsi0\">\n<div class=\"css-1k9ek97\">\n<div class=\"css-tjpxhb\">\n<div class=\"css-sefkcv\">\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">But just when information is needed most, to many Americans it feels most elusive. The rise of social media; the proliferation of information online, including news designed to deceive; and a flood of partisan news are leading to a general exhaustion with news itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Add to that a president with a documented record of regularly making false statements and the result is a strange new normal: Many people are numb and disoriented, struggling to discern what is real in a sea of slant, fake and fact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Of course, many Americans have the opposite experience: They turn to sources they trust \u2014 whether on the right or left \u2014 that tell them exactly what they already believe to be true. But a <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/apnorc.org\/PDFs\/USA%20Facts%202019\/Topline%20Results%20-%20Early.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new poll released <\/a><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/apnorc.org\/PDFs\/USA%20Facts%202019\/Topline%20Results%20-%20Early.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last week<\/a> found that 47 percent of Americans believe it\u2019s difficult to know whether the information they encounter is true. Just 31 percent find it easy. About 60 percent of Americans say they regularly see conflicting reports about the same set of facts from different sources, according to the poll, by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/usafacts.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">USAFacts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cNow more than ever, the lines between fact-based reporting and opinionated commentary seem blurred for people,\u201d said Evette Alexander, research director at the Knight Foundation, which funds journalism and research. \u201cThat means they trust what they are seeing less. They are feeling less informed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">They are also tuning out. Mr. Trudell, a registered independent, stopped paying attention to national news about a year ago. He found it toxic and mentally taxing, and it started arguments that had no end. He decided to focus instead on local and state-level politics. As a security manager at a mall, he has to worry about shoplifters, so keeping up with the state\u2019s criminal justice reforms was useful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-02\/merlin_164341935_bf678972-9a18-4ef9-b63a-268b21a5a3be-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=600\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-02\/merlin_164341935_bf678972-9a18-4ef9-b63a-268b21a5a3be-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1200\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-02\/merlin_164341935_bf678972-9a18-4ef9-b63a-268b21a5a3be-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1800\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"css-1m50asq\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-02\/merlin_164341935_bf678972-9a18-4ef9-b63a-268b21a5a3be-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" sizes=\"((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-02\/merlin_164341935_bf678972-9a18-4ef9-b63a-268b21a5a3be-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 600w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-02\/merlin_164341935_bf678972-9a18-4ef9-b63a-268b21a5a3be-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 1024w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-02\/merlin_164341935_bf678972-9a18-4ef9-b63a-268b21a5a3be-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 2048w\" alt=\"Visitors to Capitol Hill filmed the departure of George Kent, a State Depar\u00adtment offic\u00adial, after a hearing with the House Intelligence Committee in Washington on Wednesday.\" \/><\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-79elbk\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"css-1a48zt4 ehw59r15\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-children\">\n<figure class=\"css-1ef8w8q e1g7ppur0\"><figcaption class=\"css-18crmh6 e1xdpqjp0\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><span class=\"css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0\">Visitors to Capitol Hill filmed the departure of George Kent, a State Depar\u00adtment offic\u00adial, after a hearing with the House Intelligence Committee in Washington on Wednesday.<\/span><span class=\"css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span>Anna Moneymaker\/The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">National politics, he said, has started to look like eyewitness testimony: \u201cPeople can see totally different things, standing right next to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">So when he had the day off on Wednesday, which happened to be his 39th birthday, he decided to treat himself to a nap and some \u201cSimpsons\u201d reruns after his kids left for school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cYes, there are shades of gray, but what about black and white?\u201d he said. \u201cWe assume that everything is a shade of gray now.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>There is good reason for skepticism. Of the powerful new digital forces buffeting American voters, perhaps the most pernicious are items designed to deceive.<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Matt Stanley, a school administrator and registered Democrat in Crum, W.Va., watched as his candidate for Congress in the midterms last year, Richard Ojeda, lost badly. The result, Mr. Stanley believes, was at least partly related to a stream of negative ads on Facebook featuring doctored photographs aimed at discrediting Mr. Ojeda, including one depicting him in makeup and a pink beret.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">But the most corrosive part came later, Mr. Stanley said. It was not that people believed wrong things that they saw online, but that they stopped believing right things \u2014 or anything at all. That made him afraid for the future. How do you have a society without shared reference points, he said Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThe social media, it muddies up stuff so badly,\u201d said Mr. Stanley, who is 50. \u201cThere\u2019s so much information that\u2019s biased, that no one believes anything. There is so much out there and you don\u2019t know what to believe, so it\u2019s like there is nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Fake information is only part of the problem. Another is the sheer volume of news and the growing proportion of it that is opinion. Fatigue with it cuts across partisan lines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThere are certain programs, with their disdain for Trump, it just becomes the Trump-bashing show,\u201d said Els Ruijter, 55, a translator in suburban Detroit who is a left-leaning independent. \u201cIt\u2019s like eating French fries. It goes down nicely, but it gives me a little indigestion afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">She added: \u201cIt\u2019s a freaking day job nowadays to keep up with stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">[Ms. Ruijter was among the nearly 400 readers from across the country <\/em><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/11\/13\/reader-center\/trust-news-sources.html?module=inline\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">who told us how they decide what information to believ<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">e.]<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"css-8h527k\">\n<div data-testid=\"lazyimage-container\"><picture class=\"css-1j5kxti\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-03\/00fog-03-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=600\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-03\/00fog-03-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1200\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-03\/00fog-03-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1800\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"css-1m50asq\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-03\/00fog-03-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" sizes=\"((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-03\/00fog-03-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 600w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-03\/00fog-03-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 701w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-03\/00fog-03-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 1401w\" alt=\"Fake information is only part of the problem. Another is the sheer volume of news and the growing share that is opinion.\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-79elbk\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"css-1a48zt4 ehw59r15\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-children\">\n<figure class=\"css-t9vhop e1g7ppur0\"><figcaption class=\"css-18crmh6 e1xdpqjp0\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><span class=\"css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0\">Fake information is only part of the problem. Another is the sheer volume of news and the growing share that is opinion.<\/span><span class=\"css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span>George Etheredge for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Then there are the politicians themselves, first among them Mr. Trump, who has helped create the confusion by asserting, over and over, things that numerous media fact checkers say are not true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cIn the political space, you no longer have to have facts to back up your claims,\u201d said Talia Stroud, director of the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas. \u201cThe result is a population bordering on cynicism, where people discount everything that\u2019s opposed to their views.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">The loss of shared facts can be corrosive for rational discourse, as in Russia, where political leaders learned to use the online explosion far ahead of the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThey spread this sense that people live in a world of endless conspiracy, and the truth is unknowable, and all that\u2019s left in this confusing world is me,\u201d said Peter Pomerantsev, author of <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/08\/06\/books\/review\/peter-pomerantsev-this-is-not-propaganda.html?module=inline\">\u201cThis is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality.\u201d<\/a> He was referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian rulers. Mr. Trump, he said, has that style too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Mr. Pomerantsev, who worked in a Russian television station in the early 2000s, said there is a transgressive thrill in strong leaders thumbing their nose at the facts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cWe slightly miss the point if we don\u2019t understand how much pleasure their supporters derive from this,\u201d he said. \u201cDid he really say that? You can\u2019t stop watching him. It\u2019s partly about power. But it\u2019s also anarchic, and there\u2019s a weird freedom in that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump\u2019s approach does not appeal to everyone, though, even in his own party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cI do not support this brand of politics \u2014 any time there is any type of controversy, you just flatly deny it and you do it over and over until people are exhausted and move on,\u201d said Mr. Memory, the computer programmer. Mr. Memory, a registered Republican, said that was why he did not vote for Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">But he said he sees bias among liberal news outlets and that drives him crazy too. He was annoyed, for example, that stories of Mr. Trump being booed at the Washington Nationals baseball game were given top billing, but when Mr. Trump was cheered in Alabama a few days later, he could find almost nothing about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t think things are fake, they\u2019re just one-sided,\u201d said Mr. Memory, 37. \u201cBoth things happened. He got booed and he got cheered. But one of them will be a much bigger story. That\u2019s what bothers me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">The degree of alienation is new. In the <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/int.nyt.com\/data\/documenthelper\/6457-gallup-poll-social-series-gov\/2647bae2b32ea42cdbe0\/optimized\/full.pdf#page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">late 1970s, nearly three quarters<\/a> of Americans trusted newspapers, radio and television. Walter Cronkite read the news every night, and most Americans went to bed with the same set of facts, even if they had different political views. These days, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/267047\/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">less than half<\/a> of Americans have confidence in the media, according to Gallup.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-8h527k\">\n<div data-testid=\"lazyimage-container\"><picture class=\"css-1j5kxti\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-04\/merlin_164445027_eacebdd2-90eb-40fd-9784-4b63d55cae8b-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=600\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-04\/merlin_164445027_eacebdd2-90eb-40fd-9784-4b63d55cae8b-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1200\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-04\/merlin_164445027_eacebdd2-90eb-40fd-9784-4b63d55cae8b-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale&amp;width=1800\" media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"css-1m50asq\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-04\/merlin_164445027_eacebdd2-90eb-40fd-9784-4b63d55cae8b-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;disable=upscale\" sizes=\"((min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 1004px)) 84vw, (min-width: 1005px) 80vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-04\/merlin_164445027_eacebdd2-90eb-40fd-9784-4b63d55cae8b-articleLarge.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 600w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-04\/merlin_164445027_eacebdd2-90eb-40fd-9784-4b63d55cae8b-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 1024w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2019\/11\/15\/us\/00fog-04\/merlin_164445027_eacebdd2-90eb-40fd-9784-4b63d55cae8b-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&amp;auto=webp 2048w\" alt=\"Television news cameras positioned outside the White House on Friday.\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-79elbk\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"css-1a48zt4 ehw59r15\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-children\">\n<figure class=\"css-1ef8w8q e1g7ppur0\"><figcaption class=\"css-18crmh6 e1xdpqjp0\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><span class=\"css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0\">Television news cameras positioned outside the White House on Friday.<\/span><span class=\"css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span>T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">The decline in confidence is particularly pronounced by party.<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/267047\/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Today<\/a> about 69 percent of Democrats have a great deal of confidence in the media, compared to just 15 percent of Republicans and 36 percent of independents, according to Gallup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Conservatives are less trusting because they are suspicious of the liberal establishment and the media that they see coming from it, said Stephen Hawkins, director of research at More in Common, a nonprofit group studying polarization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cOn the right you have this feeling that the cultural tide has swung against people like me,\u201d said Mr. Hawkins, who grew up evangelical. \u201cThere\u2019s this sense of victimhood toward government, media and academia. \u2018These people have contempt for us, if not downright hatred, and so cannot be a reliable witness for what we are seeing day to day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Mr. Pomerantsev argues that news avoidance cuts across political lines and that the concept of left and right no longer fits. In Russia, it had more to do with the loss of national identity and a larger story of progress that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThere were no nice facts to tell people, and suddenly you had political ideology based on nostalgia,\u201d he said. \u201cTwenty years later, we\u2019ve reached this point in the West.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">New academic work is emerging that supports the view that news avoidance is not about left or right. Benjamin J. Toff, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota, conducted in-depth interviews in Iowa this summer and found that those who say they avoid the news tended to be younger, female and poorer \u2014 people already stretched between jobs and home, making hours of evaluating news sources \u201cthe last thing they wanted to do with their time,\u201d Professor Toff said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThey had this sense that they had to be skeptical of everything out there but they didn\u2019t have the time to spend hours to make sense of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-jwz2nf etfikam0\"><em>Sabrina Tavernise reported from Washington and Aidan Gardiner from New York.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-jwz2nf etfikam0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/11\/18\/us\/polls-media-fake-news.html\">The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1rrkvmb epkadsg3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sabrina Tavernise and Aidan Gardiner,\u00a0Nov.18, 2019 Paying attention to the impeachment inquiry and other developments means having to figure out what is true, false or spin. Many Americans are throwing up their hands and tuning it all out. WASHINGTON \u2014 In upstate New York, Travis Trudell got an alert on his phone Wednesday morning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8698,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669\/revisions\/8698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}