A new poll has sought to answer a question asked by many throughout the last decade as the phrase “fake news” has continued to be prominent in everyday life: What news organizations do Americans trust?
The poll, conducted by Economist/YouGov, looked at who Americans trust and who they trust depending on their political beliefs.
The poll was conducted from March 26-29 and asked 1,500 Americans where they get their news and how much they trust prominent media and anchors.
While the poll looked to find who Americans trust, it also found that they are more likely to distrust prominent news sources. On top of that, it found very few both Republicans and Democrats trust.
The news organization that Americans place their trust in, no matter their political allegiance, doesn’t cover domestic politics. The poll found that 52% of Americans place their trust in the Weather Channel, the only news organization to be over 50%.
Behind the Weather Channel was PBS at 41%, the BBC at 39%, and CBS at 38%. Other notable organizations in the top ten included The Wall Street Journal at 37%, NBC at 37%, and ABC at 38%.
Among the news organizations that Republicans and Democrats disagree on the most include CNN, which 11% of Republicans trust and 66% of Democrats, Newsmax, which 15% of Democrats trust and 41% of Republicans, and The New York Times, which 14% of Republicans trust and 63% of Democrats trust.
CNN has been a constant target from members of the GOP and was named the most politically polarizing media outlet by YouGov as it has a 55-point difference between Republicans and Democrats.
Behind CNN as the most politically polarizing was The New York Times with a difference of 49 points. On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal was the least polarizing behind the Weather Channel, with only a 25 point difference.
Related
Politics play a significant role in news and how Americans consume their information. The results from this poll show just that, as only four news organizations were trusted more by Republicans than by Democrats.
These include Breitbart with 25%, One America News with 30%, Newsmax with 41%, and Fox News with 53%. Overall the poll found that Democrats are more trusting of the mainstream media than Republicans.
When it comes to the most trusted news anchors, the poll found through an open-ended question that Anderson Cooper was trusted by 44% of Americans, ABC News’ David Muir was trusted by 40%, and Fox News’ Bret Baier by 39%.
For Republicans, Tucker Carlson reigned supreme, with 65% of conservatives familiar with him trusting him, while Laura Ingraham had 61%, Sean Hannity had 59%, and Baier 54%.
Meanwhile, for Democrats, 75% familiar with Cooper trusted him, 65% trusted MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, 63% trusted ABC NEws’ George Stephanopoulos, and 62% trusted CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Lastly, the poll asked respondents where they get their news; 56% of Americans 65 and older said cable TV news, and 53% said TV news or their websites.
For younger generations, 26% of adults under 30 said they used cable TV, while 41% said they get their news from social media. Other news sources for the same age range included YouTube, with 27%, and options that weren’t listed with 27%.
Related
