Public Policy Polling does a survey every year to determine the most and least trusted TV news organizations in the United States -- and once again the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is the hands down winner. About 57% of the public (13 points higher than the second place organization) trusts PBS, and only 24% of the public (13 points lower than any others) say they distrust PBS. In fact, PBS was the only news organization to be trusted by a majority of Americans.The Fox News statistics showed the polarizing effect of that network. They were second in both the most trusted (44%) and least trusted (42%). The chart below shows the demographic breakdown of those trusting or distrusting Fox News. The trust/distrust for Fox by the general public is within the margin of error, which means the general public is divided over whether it can be trusted or not.
But there are four groups that trust Fox by more than the margin of error -- men (by 9 points), Whites (by 9 points), Republicans (by 61 points), and those over age 65 (by 24 points). That pretty much describes the average Fox viewer -- an old white Republican man. All other groups distrusted Fox by more than the margin of error (except for the 46 to 65 group, which was split).
MSNBC was the least trusted (34% trusting and 44% distrusting).
The Public Policy Polling survey was done between January 23rd and 26th of a national sample of 845 registered voters, and had a margin of error of 3.4 points.
