(NaturalNews) Americans' trust in their news media continues to wane, with a new survey showing that the Fourth Estate is about as unpopular as Congress.

According to the survey, which was taken and released by Gallup, just 18 percent of Americans polled expressed either a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the news medium.

As reported by CNS News, Gallup has been asking this question since 1993: "Now I am going to read you a list of institutions in American society. Please tell me how much confidence you, yourself, have in each one--a great deal, quite a lot, some or very little?"

One of the institutions listed on the survey is "television news." In the latest poll, which was conducted June 5 - 8, just 10 percent said they had "a great deal" of confidence in TV news, while just 8 percent voiced "quite a lot" of confidence in the medium.

Votes of 'no confidence'

As noted by CNS News:

The previous low was in 2012, when a combined 21 percent said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in television news. In 2013, it was 23 percent.

The first year Gallup took its news media survey, in 1993, 46 percent of Americans said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in TV news. Public confidence has not been that high since.

In the 22 years Gallup has been asking the question, in fact, the 18 percent who said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in TV news is the lowest ever recorded.

Gallup interviewed a random sample of 1,027 adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the survey. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points, CNS News reported.

These results mirror those of Americans' confidence - or lack thereof - in their public institutions.

In early June, Gallup published a survey regarding public confidence in Congress. It said:

Americans' confidence in Congress has sunk to a new low. Seven percent of Americans say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress as an American institution, down from the previous low of 10 percent in 2013. This confidence is starkly different from the 42 percent in 1973, the first year Gallup began asking the question.

Just 7 percent of Americans have confidence in the branch of government they are supposed to be closest to.

We are losing faith in our system

But there are other institutions that are suffering a dearth of confidence as well. While faith in the U.S. military is high, faith and confidence in public schools is not.

A 2012 survey - again by Gallup - found that just 29 percent of Americans have confidence in the nation's public schools; that is down 33 percent just since 2008 and is down from 58 percent in 1973.

"Americans have always strived for the best. Our public schools are far from it. Across the country, just one-third of children are proficient in reading. In the urban centers, that number is tragically lower," reported The Daily Signal. "In Chicago - where public school teachers, at the behest of the government unions, are set to strike in order to demand a 30 percent pay raise - just 15 percent of children are proficient in reading."

Banks, organized religion and the U.S. Supreme Court are also suffering a crisis of confidence.

Americans have the best governing system in history but are losing faith in its institutions because they have been hijacked by hucksters, demagogues, frauds and political hacks - not because the system established by our founders is suddenly bad.

Sources for this article include:

http://cnsnews.com

http://www.gallup.com

http://dailysignal.com