Trivia question for you: What do the BBC and The Weather Channel have in common?
An Economist/YouGov poll shows that Americans are more likely to trust many prominent news sources rather than distrust them. However, few organizations are trusted by more than a small proportion of both Democrats and Republicans.
The poll surveyed 1,500 Americans in late March on their news sources and how much they trust a variety of mainstream media organizations and news anchors.
Interestingly, Americans have the highest trust in the U.K. news outlet The BBC, followed by PBS, and The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, the WSJ has the smallest gap in trust between Democrats (52% trust it) and Republicans (27%).
The most politically polarizing media outlet is CNN, followed by The New York Times. The survey found that “nearly two-thirds of Democrats (66%) rate CNN as trustworthy, compared to 11% of Republicans, a 55-point difference, larger than for any other outlet.”
Generally, Democrats are more trusting of any news outlet than Republicans, with the exception being Fox News. Only 19% of Democrats trust the cable station compared to the 53% of Republicans who trust it. Trust in Fox News by Republicans is down by four percentage points from 2020, and the share of Democrats who trust it is up by three percentage points since then.
There is some consensus between Democrats and Republicans about which media organization to trust: The Weather Channel. 50% of Republicans and 62% of Democrats trust the cable station.