That supports my point, not rebuts it. My thesis is that the media shifted to the left, causing Democrats to see them more favorably and Republicans to see them less favorably, and the drop and the gain both indicate that.

I wasn't disagreeing with your thesis so much as pointing out that for both Republicans and Democrats, "trust" is more of a proxy for "does this coverage agree with my politics" (you might be making the same argument). I don't know if you can say it shows a media shift one way or the other though, since one could make a pretty strong argument that Trump was fairly terrible among Republican politicians and the media didn't have to move at all for his coverage to be worse and delight Democrats while angering Republicans.

Totally agree on the meaning of "trust" here, and that's a fair point regarding it not really being conclusive that the media moved left. My own take is that they did, but your explanation is plausible. Strange times.

Yet independents are closer to the Republicans in this case.