The share of U.S. adults who said nine leading media outlets were credible has dropped an average of 5 percentage points over the past three years. The small decline was largely driven by Republicans, who became on average 12 points less likely to say those organizations were credible.
Confidence in media institutions overall was also down in 2018, according to three Morning Consult tracking polls.
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As I recall it was Presidential Candidate Donald Trump
that broke the ice with the term FAKE NEWS.
Up until that time the Main Stream part of the Republican
Party was just parroting Fox News.