Yep. I'd really like to see this broken down by vendor. I'm not convinced those trusting Dems are counting Fox News as "the media" for instance.

“The media” has become coded language. People who boast that they don’t trust “the media” usually still trust in bias-confirming media.

There are many media outlets that specialize in selling the reality that a large enough population wishes to be true. These are the outlets people who don’t trust “the media” are gravitating to.

The survey question asks about trust in “mass media,” which most would interpret as corporate media outlets. I doubt survey respondents would consider stuff like AlterNet and The Daily Wire to be “mass media,” even though they report on the news. Here’s the exact survey question:

“In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media -- such as newspapers, TV and radio -- when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly -- a great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all?”

I do think the question should be clarified though.

This might be true for you, and hopefully for me, but for the average person I'd bet more money on them just doubling down on <source of confirmation bias> than becoming more skeptical.

Spend only 5 minutes with some of my neighbors, who somehow manage to cram the whole enchilada of how Bill Gates changes our genes through mosquitoes, how the Rotschilds rule the world, how vaccines contain metals, how Hitler was forced to do his thing by the US, how all Jews left Ukraine one week before the war, etc. etc. etc. into that short timeframe — and completely unasked for, of course. They just HAVE to tell it.

More skeptical, my ass.

I wish I shared your optimism. But one look at the current conspiracy theory laden landscape would suggest you're wrong, I'm afraid. People believe what they want to believe.