. . .and the least trusted name in news. The funny thing is MSNBC polls only in 6th place as the most trusted among Democrats. Public Policy Polling:
PPP’s 3rd annual TV news trust poll (2011 version here, 2010 version here) finds that Fox News tops the list for both the source Americans trust the most and the one they trust the least.
Fox is the most trusted TV news source for 34% of voters, followed by PBS at 17%, CNN at 12%, ABC News at 11%, CBS News at 8%, MSNBC at 5%, and Comedy Central and NBC each at 4%.
68% of Republicans pick Fox as their most trusted source, with no one else even hitting double digits. Democrats split closely three ways with PBS at 21%, ABC News at 19%, and CNN at 17%. Despite having a reputation for appealing to the left MSNBC actually polls in only 6th place among Democrats at 8%, finishing slightly behind even Fox News’ 9%. Independents split almost evenly between Fox News (29%) and PBS (27%).
Fox is also the least trusted TV news source for 34% of voters, followed by Comedy Central at 16%, MSNBC at 15%, CNN at 11%, ABC News at 7%, CBS News at 5%, PBS at 2%, and NBC News at 1%.
Democrats (53-17 over Comedy Central) and independents (44-13 over Comedy Central) both overwhelmingly say Fox is their least trusted news source. Republicans go for MSNBC by a 28-23 margin over CNN, followed by Comedy Central at 18% and ABC News at 10%.
The rest here.
FOX News is good at presenting stories in an objective way, then letting commentators do their right-wing spins on later shows. MSNBC pushes its progressive viewpoint so hamhandedly into its news reports that even like-minded viewers notice it.
I think MSNBC figures CNN already has the liberal-but-objective angle locked up, and operates as a kind of parody of what they imagine FOX News to be, rather than what it actually is. They overdo the spin factor, so to speak.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseInteresting that PBS has the most positive skew -- very few people "mistrust" them. NPR is also pretty good when they do "hard news" I have to say -- along with Fox, pretty much the only "mainstream" news outlets I take seriously. I would say those are your two best left/right counterpoints for TV news. (CNN is just too banal and boring and slick most of the time. Milktoast liberal media. I feel like they talk down to their audience too.)
Kind of amazed that MSNBC is not only the most negatively skewed (5% trust vs. 15% mistrust), but even among Democrats Fox is more trusted than MSNBC! I always knew Olbermann & co. were a ridiculous parody of journalism, but thought there were enough leftwing useful idiots in the world who like a channel that reinforces their self-righteousness. ;-)
Frankly I figured a higher percentage of Dems would "trust Comedy Central" as a news source. I feel like I know too many 20 and 30-somethings who seem to get most of their news from MSNBC and The Stewart-Colbert News Hour (it's probably more generational than political per se.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow in the heck is Comedy Central considered a news source in this poll?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy thoughts exactly. What??
Funny they didn't include HSN. I would think a lot of Americans would mistrust them for their news, but I could be wrong.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse34% most trusted + 34% most distrusted = 68% of voters who have watched Fox News enough to have a strong opinion.
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