Americans do not trust the major tv news operations in the country- except for Fox News.

Our newest survey looking at perceptions of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News finds Fox as the only one that more people say they trust than distrust. 49% say they trust it to 37% who do not.

CNN does next best at a 39/41 spread, followed by NBC at 35/44, CBS at 32/46, and ABC at 31/46.

Predictably there is a lot of political polarization in which outlets people trust. 74% of Republicans trust Fox News, but no more than 23% trust any of the other four sources. We already knew that conservatives don’t trust the mainstream media but this data is a good prism into just how deep that distrust runs.

For Democrats the numbers are a complete opposite- a majority trust all of ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC while only 30% have faith in Fox News. Continuing the trend in our polling over the last few months that independents hate everything, a plurality of them distrust all five outlets we looked at.
[…]
These numbers suggest quite a shift in what Americans want from their news. A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality. It says a lot about where journalism is headed.

How anyone could trust anything they see on TV is beyond me.




  1. BigBoyBC says:

    #27 freddybobs68k

    unexpected side effect

  2. freddybobs68k says:

    #33 BigBoyBC

    ‘unexpected side effect’

    So assuming it’s true (which it isn’t) presumably they are not going to that anymore – because it’s working in the opposite way as expected.

    Therefor even if it was true (which it wasn’t and isn’t) it wont be anymore.

  3. Crazy Smart says:

    ROFLMAO

    Most trusted!? That’s like trusting the “doctor” from Philip Morris to tell you if smoking caused your cancer. LOL

  4. Lou Minatti says:

    It’s fun to watch the libtards lose their minds. First they lose Air “Steal Money From Poor Inner City Kids” America, now this.

  5. tna says:

    What I found amusing is anybody even classifying Fox as a news station when it is obvious that their the whole point of existence is to get Republican candidates elected. Fox does not even cover topics not related to that goal. Honestly, I can find out more items happening around the world if I watch CCTV news from China.

  6. Mr. Fusion says:

    Without having read the previous comments, …

    This is more an indication of the political divide than worth or veracity of the news outlet.

    I fully expect the right wing nuts to be slamming all except for FOX. I remember a poll a while back showing FOX viewers to be the least educated and CNN to have the highest education.

  7. Thomas says:

    #1
    University of Maryland researchers studied the public’s belief in three false claims — that Iraq possessed WMD

    Not a false claim. Iraq possessed chemical weapons. http://globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090427_8248.php

    that Iraq was involved in 9/11

    When was that ever claimed? What was actually claimed is that Iraq was part of the larger war on terror.

    and that there was international support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

    Again, not a false claim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-National_Force_%E2%80%93_Iraq.

    The extent of Americans’ misperceptions vary significantly depending on their source of news.

    More like the surveyors misperceptions.

  8. Thomas says:

    At least everyone seems to acknowledge that all the major networks including Fox are biased. The degree of bias and where it lies on the political spectrum are debatable but there does not appear to be a question of whether they are biased. That is a good first step. Now, we just need to convince everyone that since all the networks, including Fox are biased, to do their news sleuthing with that in mind and get their news from multiple sources.

  9. Glenn says:

    What is the first thing that happens when one wants to pull off a revolution or a coup? You shut down the media! Or in our present case, continuously discredit the media you oppose until the sheep/citizens finally start believing your propaganda. If Fox had its way, when the Republicans do take over the Congress this fall, they would shut down all media outlets and only allow Fox to broadcast, ala Pravda in the former Soviet Union. We all know how well that turned out.

  10. jccalhoun says:

    Look at who was asked. over 70% white and over 60% over 45. So old white people like Fox. Shocking! What is next, a survey telling us that the majority of NAACP members are black?

  11. Rick Cain says:

    America is the land of corporate propaganda. Thats why we feed our kids chemical laden hot pocket snacks, let them drink chemically laced sodas, and watch Fox News.

    We are willing victims of corporate propaganda. Fox doesn’t bother the viewer or pose troubling questions that require thought, it cheerleads America and makes the viewer feel good about killing brown people for oil.

    America, fuck yeah!

  12. be thinkin' says:

    I wonder if repeating their “news” as often as they do has something to do with it.

    The networks say “X” and move on. Fox says “x” and then you hear the same thing on their other shows, Republican talking heads and talk radio. “It must be true, I heard it from three sources: Beck, O’Reilly, and Limbaugh.”

    It’s not facts…it’s Fox.

  13. Benjamin says:

    I quit watching Foxnews when I moved away from my roommate that had cable. Now I live by myself and have no one to pay the cable bill. I have no converter box so I don’t watch broadcast news. I get all my news from the Internet and talk radio. The important stuff gets discussed by Glenn Beck or made into trivia questions by Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

  14. Stan says:

    CABLE NEWS RACE
    TUES., JAN., 26, 2010

    FOXNEWS O’REILLY 3,581,000
    FOXNEWS BECK 3,196,000
    FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,133,000
    FOXNEWS BAIER 2,624,000
    FOXNEWS GRETA 2,415,000
    FOXNEWS SHEP 2,187,000
    CNNHN BEHAR 949,000
    CNNHN GRACE 914,000
    MSNBC OLBERMANN 818,000
    CNN KING 796,000
    MSNBC MADDOW 726,000

  15. The0ne says:

    #48
    That is why we, the US, is in a fcking deep pile of sht. I don’t need to prove a single thing except direct anyone questioning to watch those top 6 shows.

    We’re definitely not going to be ok for a LONG time to come. But then I am looking forward to an Idiocracy world 😮

  16. jccalhoun says:

    Fox news might be the highest rated news channel but nickleodeon’s icarly got over 11million viewers. So arguing over who has the highest cable news ratings is like arguing over which infomercial has the highest ratings.

  17. Guyver says:

    38, Mr. Fusion, “I remember a poll a while back showing FOX viewers to be the least educated and CNN to have the highest education.”

    Tangential but related, I also remember a poll it was found that average Apple computer owner was more educated / “smarter” than the average PC owner. The problem was the poll based a lot of its data on schools where Apple subsidized their products to get them into academia. In some cases, they had almost given their products away to faculty.

    42, GetSmart, “PBS and BBC for a lot less slant.”

    They both tend to slant to the left. I recall a BBC news anchor who grilled the Israelis as being terrorists once.

    45, Rick Cain, “America is the land of corporate propaganda. Thats why we feed our kids chemical laden hot pocket snacks, let them drink chemically laced sodas, and watch Fox News.”

    Americans are free to choose how they eat. Why whine about not having choice?

  18. The0ne says:

    #50
    Actually, infomercials including QVC and such, would represent similar types of people. IMO of course.

    And while it may seem you have a valid reason there, he was listing just the main news channels. From those specific list you can see there are 3.5million fools and idiots following almost each one of he fox shows while less than 1mil is watching other shows. Surely by laws of probability and Darwin awards achievements there’s a good percentage of those 3.5million people that aren’t well in their heads.

    Or did you implied that Nick is no different than Cable news like Fox? If so, do you include Sesame street, Cartoon Network and the like? 😮 Of course, we’re now gone to crazy land here.

  19. Mr. Fusion says:

    #51, Guyver,

    Mac users generally are better educated. Historically more high end work was done on Macs, such as graphics. They are still generally preferred.

    PBS and BBC are generally neutral. Classifying them as leftist shows the bias of the commenter.

    I think Rick was alluding to the brainwashing influence of modern corporate methods. Kids are brainwashed to eat sugar laden, nutrient deficient, cereals that their parents were fed.

  20. RBG says:

    Have you tried CNN?

  21. Thomas says:

    Mac users generally are better educated. Historically more high end work was done on Macs, such as graphics. They are still generally preferred.

    An insulting simplistic point of view. AFAIK, no major systems development for the military are done on a Mac. I guess those folks are dummies. Historically, some forms of graphic design are done more on a Mac however AutoCad which is the industry standard CAD program only exists on the PC. I guess the people involved in CAD are also dummies? Further, in terms of graphic design, every application in use on the Mac exists on the PC and run at comparable speeds even though PCs are substantially cheaper and thus it is no longer true that most graphic design is done on a Mac.

    I work in LA and honestly, the only thing that keeps Mac afloat in Hollywood is Final Cut Pro. If Apple would permit Final Cut to make a port to the PC, Mac use would practically disappear.

  22. Rick Cain says:

    “Hee Haw” was a very popular show and lasted for decades on TV too.

    Should we base our lives on Hee Haw?


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