Public trust in mainstream news outlets has collapsed to its lowest level on record, a bad sign for legacy networks and for anyone who still needs the public to believe a news story.

• Years of overhyped scandals, anonymous sourcing, and stories that fell apart — starting with Russia collusion — drained the credibility of major outlets.
• MSNBC's rebrand to MS NOW reads as a cosmetic fix that does nothing about why viewers left.
• Big legal settlements at ABC and CBS, including a payout worth tens of millions, reinforced the idea that networks got the facts wrong.
• The deeper problem is the boy-who-cried-wolf effect: even when outlets report something real and damaging, nobody listens anymore.

Outlook: Expect more rebrands and more lawsuits, but no quick recovery in trust — audiences have already shifted to independent media.