America’s trust in the media has plateaued over the last few years with only around one-in-three Americans saying they trust the news.
Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu visualizes the percentage of Americans who trust (or distrust) various news organizations. Importantly, this is not an exhaustive list of media brands.
Data is sourced from a 2024 YouGov survey commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
ℹ️ More than 2,000 nationally representative Americans were asked to rate a brand’s trustworthiness on a scale of 0–10. Responses that picked 0–4 were coded as “don’t trust;” similarly 6–10 were coded as “trust.” The middle number, 5, was categorized as “neither.”
CNN & Fox Are the Most Divisive News Outlets
Local TV stations and newspapers are still Americans’ most trusted news organizations, despite the gutting of local news outlets over the last decade.
| Brand | Trust | Neither | Don't Trust |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📺 Local television news | 62% | 21% | 17% |
| 📰 Local newspapers | 58% | 24% | 18% |
| 🅰️ ABC News | 52% | 20% | 28% |
| 🌍 BBC News | 52% | 25% | 23% |
| 📺 CBS News | 52% | 20% | 28% |
| 🗽 New York Times | 50% | 20% | 30% |
| 📺 NBC/MSNBC News | 49% | 18% | 32% |
| 💼 Wall Street Journal | 49% | 26% | 25% |
| 📺 CNN | 48% | 15% | 37% |
| 📻 NPR News | 47% | 23% | 29% |
| 🇺🇸 USA Today | 47% | 27% | 27% |
| 🏛️ Washington Post | 46% | 23% | 31% |
| 🦊 Fox News | 43% | 15% | 43% |
| 🌐 Yahoo! News | 40% | 29% | 30% |
| 📰 HuffPost | 39% | 28% | 32% |
Note: Figures are rounded and may not sum to 100.
Meanwhile, broadcasters ABC, BBC, and CBS are also more trusted than not for at least half of those surveyed. Print and digital newspaper The New York Times also managed a 50% trust rating—the only named newspaper to do so.
Towards the bottom of this sample of companies, HuffPost is the least trusted (39%) news brand. In 2012, the organization was the first commercially-run U.S. digital news website to win a Pulitzer Prize. In 2015 ownership moved when Verizon acquired AOL (which owned HuffPost). As of 2020, the company is now by Buzzfeed Inc.
Fox News is the most polarizing brand listed, with an equal 43% share for “trust” and “don’t trust.” It is also the only listed outlet where more than 40% of those surveyed didn’t trust it.
If you liked this article, check out Ranked: The Most Popular Paid Subscription News Websites for a list of news outlets subscribers are willing to pay for.
