Credibility is pretty essential for the media. If folks don’t believe what they read in the paper or see on the news, what’s the point?

So do Americans believe what news organization are putting out? According to a new survey from Pew Research Center for the People & the Press they don’t as much as they used to.

Pew asked 1,001 adults to rate cable news stations, network TV news, national newspapers, NPR and their local newspapers on a 1 to 4 scale with 4 meaning they believe “all or most” of what the news organization says and 1 meaning they believe “almost nothing” of what they say.

Overall, 56 percent gave out a positive rating (3 or 4) and 44 percent returned a negative ratings (1 or 2.)

That’s a decline from the 62 percent overall positive ratings Pew found when they asked the same question in 2010. It’s also the lowest percentage of positive ratings since they started asking the question in 2002.

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