Two posts from the Monkey Cage.
First: The cause of increased distrust - which is not related to distrust in other institutions - are related to increased polarization between the parties on policy positions and technological changes - the rise of cable and the internet - which has led to a fragmented media environment which allows people to select the news they want to hear.
Second: The consequence of increased distrust is the fact that partisan identifiers live in two completely different worlds. their evaluation of whether they think things are good are bad are not only related to whether they trust or distrust the media, but on which party holds the presidency.
