Americans continue to rely on a wide variety of sources to stay informed, but trust in those sources remains uneven and shaped by politics. In our 2026 Trust in Media survey, trust declined for most of the news outlets we measured. Only a handful made modest gains that were generally within the survey's margin of error. Despite these declines, the broader hierarchy of trust remains relatively stable: The outlets Americans trust most and least have changed little from previous years.

Our latest survey examines how Americans view 48 major news outlets and 17 online sources, as well as where they get their news and how they perceive the ideological leanings of prominent media organizations. In doing so, we revisit questions asked on similar surveys in 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022. The survey also reveals persistent partisan divides, growing distrust towards many sources, and an evolving media environment in which social media and AI tools play a major role in how Americans consume news.

The most and least trusted news sources

Like in last year's survey, we asked Americans in 2026 whether they think news from dozens of outlets is very trustworthy, trustworthy, untrustworthy, very untrustworthy, or neither trustworthy nor untrustworthy. Using these results, we calculate each outlet's net trust score – that is, how much more likely Americans are to say the outlet's news is trustworthy or very trustworthy than to say it is untrustworthy or very untrustworthy.

By this measure, The Weather Channel persists as the most trusted news source, as it was in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025: Americans are 50 percentage points more likely to call The Weather Channel trustworthy than they are to call it untrustworthy. The Weather Channel is followed by PBS (+26) and The Wall Street Journal (+22).

The least-trusted outlets among those included in the poll are Breitbart News (-12), One America News (-10), and Fox News (-10).

Net trust shows differences between news sources, or between the same source over time, that are on average about twice as large as differences in the share who consider a source trustworthy. That's because the percentage who find a source untrustworthy typically changes by the same magnitude, in the opposite direction, as changes in the percentage who don't trust the source.

Average net trust in news outlets decreased slightly this year — to +6 from +9 in 2025 — after a slight increase last year compared to 2024. (The list of outlets included changes slightly from year to year.) Overall, trust in outlets included in each of the last four years' surveys has changed little — as have outlets' relative positions for trust.

Since last year, net trust has declined in news from CBS (12-point decrease in net trust). This decrease was mostly driven by Democrats, whose net trust in CBS fell by 32 points. Net trust in MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) has declined by 12 points, which could in part reflect lower familiarity with its new name: 34% say they don't know how trustworthy MS NOW is, double the 17% for MSNBC last year. Net trust in MS NOW fell most among Democrats: a decline of 24 points. The other outlets with the biggest declines in net trust are Fox News (11-point decrease), OAN (9-point decrease), the BBC (7-point decrease), and the Daily Caller (7-point decrease).

Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say they trust the news in general, and the news from most of the specific news outlets included in the poll. For 42 of the 48 outlets asked about, a greater share of Democrats trust than distrust them. That's true among Republicans for only 15 outlets.

While both Democrats and Republicans generally are more likely to trust certain television news sources than print or online outlets, they differ on which TV sources they place their trust in. Democrats have the most trust in PBS, NBC, and the New York Times, while Republicans particularly trust Fox News, Fox Business Channel, and Newsmax.

There is little overlap in the sources that Democrats and Republicans find most trustworthy — other than The Weather Channel, which is more trusted than not on both sides of the aisle. Only 10 (21%) of news outlets asked about have positive net trust among members of both parties. Many outlets with positive net trust among people in both parties are focused — at least in name or reputation — on economic or financial news: Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Business Insider, and the Economist.

There is even less partisan overlap for the news outlets that Americans trust least. Only one outlet is more likely to be considered untrustworthy than trustworthy by both Democrats and Republicans: the Daily Caller.

CNN and Fox News are the most politically polarizing outlets. Net trust in CNN is 85 points higher among Democrats than among Republicans, and net trust in Fox News is 85 points higher among Republicans than among Democrats.

In addition to having more trust in CNN, Democrats also place far more trust than Republicans do in PBS (78-point difference in net trust), the New York Times (73 points), NBC (70 points), and NPR (70 points).

Beyond their higher trust in Fox News, Republicans have higher trust than Democrats do in Fox Business Channel (65-point difference in net trust), Newsmax (41 points), and OAN (33 points).

Among Democrats, average net trust in the outlets asked about in the survey decreased 6 percentage points from last year, to +25 from +31. The largest decreases in net trust among Democrats are for CBS (32-point decrease in net trust) and MS NOW (24-point decrease). There were also sizable decreases in trust among Democrats for Fox News (15-point decrease), the Washington Post (13-point decrease), the BBC (11-point decrease), and Bloomberg (11-point decrease).

There was a 5-point decrease in Republicans' average net trust in the outlets asked about, to -6 from -1 last year. The outlets with the biggest decreases in net trust among Republicans are CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the BBC, and Comedy Central — with the net trust in each decreasing by between 11 and 14 points.

Even though many Americans consume news from social media — 72% named at least one of the platforms listed on the survey as a source for their news in the past month — most specific platforms are viewed by more Americans as untrustworthy than trustworthy. YouTube (+7 net trust) is regarded slightly more highly than others. The least trusted social media platforms asked about are TikTok (-32), Snapchat (-27), Truth Social (-24), Facebook (-24), and X (-21).

Truth Social and X are the most politically polarizing platforms: Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to trust each of them. Among Republicans, Truth Social is the most trusted social media platform (+12 net trust), but among Democrats, it ranks as the least trusted (-46). Democrats are more likely than Republicans to trust social media platforms other than Truth Social and X, especially Bluesky, Reddit, and TikTok.

Net trust in news on social media platforms has decreased over the past year, to an average of -15 net trust across platforms from an average of -8 in 2025. The largest declines in net trust were for Truth Social (9-point decline) and Bluesky (9-point decline).

Where Americans get their news

Americans are most likely to say that in the past month, they've gotten news from social media (60%) or television (56%). The popularity of these formats is split by age: Adults under 45 are most likely to have used social media for news, while older adults are most likely to have relied on television.

45% of Americans say that in the past month they've heard about news from a friend, family member, or acquaintance. News websites are also common sources of news (39%), followed by search engines (29%), radio (28%), and news apps (26%). 14% have used print newspapers for news in the past month and 10% have used magazines. 6% have used AI chatbots for news.

Since last year, there has been a 10-point increase in the share of Americans who say they see information online that is AI-generated every day (to 46% from 36%). Only 11% of Americans say they are very confident they can differentiate between people-generated news and AI-generated news.

Of the 48 outlets asked about in the survey, Americans are most likely to say that in the past month they've gotten news from Fox News (36%) and CNN (32%). ABC (29%), NBC (28%), and CBS (26%) also rank highly in news usage. The New York Times is the most-read news source with a print component: 23% say they've used the Times for news in the past month. Yahoo News is the most likely to have been used among exclusively online news sources: 17% have used it.

Republicans' news sources are somewhat more consolidated than Democrats'. 58% of Republicans say they've used Fox News in the past month while less than 25% of Republicans say the same about any single other news outlet.

Democrats use a wider variety of outlets: Just under half have recently used CNN (47%) and one-third or more have used each of ABC, NBC, the New York Times, and CBS.

Among Democrats, there has been a 13-point decrease in the share saying they've gotten news in the past month from MS NOW — with, as mentioned, possible decline in recognition of the name since its change from MSNBC — an 8-point decrease in the share having gotten news from CNN and a 6-point decline for CBS. Among Republicans there was also a decrease in using CNN as a source for news, of 9 points.

Net trust generally is higher in outlets with more users. Deviating somewhat from that pattern, The Weather Channel has higher net trust relative to peers with similarly sized audiences, while net trust is lower relative to usage for Fox News.

More Americans say they've gotten news from Facebook (40%) or YouTube (39%) than from each of the individual news outlets asked about. (Some of the news Americans got from social media might have come from the news outlets.) One in five (21%) of Americans have used X as a source for news in the past month, 23% have used Instagram, and 17% have used TikTok.

News-aggregators — especially Google News — also are a common way to consume news. 32% of Americans say they've gotten news from Google News in the past month, 14% from Apple News, and 11% from MSN.

10% of Americans say they've consumed news from ChatGPT in the past month, including 16% of adults under 45. 7% have used Gemini for news and 2% have used Claude.

There have been few changes since last year in which social media sites and news aggregation sites Americans say they have gotten news from in the past month.

The ideology of news sources

The survey included a series of questions about the ideological lean of 21 news sources — that is, whether the outlet generally is liberal, moderate, conservative, or non-political. The 21 news sources are a subset of the 48 outlets included in the poll. We determine an outlet's net ideology by subtracting the share of Americans who say an outlet is liberal from the share who say it is conservative.

Far more outlets are classified by Americans as being more liberal than conservative than are classified as more conservative than liberal. The sources most likely to be viewed as more liberal than conservative are CNN, MS NOW, and the New York Times. Fox News and Breitbart have the most conservative net ideologies.

Interested in learning more?

Explore and download results from our survey below.

Related:

See the results from this YouGov poll

Methodology: The May 25 - 26, 2026 poll was conducted among 2,102 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.

Image: Getty (Heather Diehl / Staff)

What do you think about Donald Trump, American politics in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.

Subscribe to the YouGov newsletter