Local news more trusted than Trump administration, national media for COVID-19 information, survey finds
As a whole, most Americans don’t believe the news media gets the facts right about the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one survey, but they do put more stock in the information they receive from local outlets.
The Pew Research Center surveyed 9,654 Americans between June 4 and 10. They found half of all Americans believe local outlets get their coronavirus facts right almost all or most of the time.
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Only 44% of respondents hold that same view of the news industry as a whole.
In an April survey of 10,139 adults, 61% of respondents said they were equally following local and national news about the virus.
But 23% of them said they turn to state and local outlets for virus news, as opposed to the 15% seek the same from national outlets.
Even so, 56% of respondents considered national media as major sources of news about the pandemic. Local outlets came in at just 46%.
For weeks, President Donald Trump and his task force held daily news briefings about the pandemic. But according to June’s survey, his administration fared the worst, with just 30% of respondents believing he got the facts right.
Roughly the same number of people consider the task force as a major source of outbreak news.
Only 5% of respondents look to Joe Biden for news on the virus, the lowest of any category.
Fifty-one percent of respondents turn to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a major source. Still the CDC and other public health organizations garnered the most public trust at 64%.
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At 53%, governors and state officials got the second most support. But only 36% of respondents look to them for coronavirus news.
Additional recent polls conducted during the pandemic have garnered similar insights regarding how Americans are interpreting the COVID-19 crisis.
An AP-NORC poll conducted during the pandemic indicated that were partisan divides regarding the future outlook of the country.
Another poll from Pew Research Center found divides between how Americans view the World Health Organization’s (WHO) response to COVID-19.
This story was reported from Atlanta.