Fox Is The Most Trusted Name In News According To New Poll

January 26th, 2010 6:43 PM

CNN might call itself the most trusted name in news, but a new poll found Americans think the Fox News Channel is the organization deserving this honor.

In fact, according to Public Policy Polling, FNC is the only national television news organization that more people trust than distrust.

Kind of makes members of the Obama administration who regularly depict Fox as not being a real news organization look somewhat foolish, doesn't it?

Consider that as you read some of the poll's highlights:

A new poll asking Americans whether they trust each of the major television news operations in the country finds that the only one getting a positive review is Fox News. CNN does next best followed by NBC News, then CBS News, and finally ABC News.

49% of Americans say they trust Fox News to 37% who disagree. Predictably there is a large party split on this with 74% of Republicans but only 30% of Democrats saying they trust the right leaning network.

CNN does next best because it is the second most trusted of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. 39% say they trust it compared to 41% who do not, with 59% of Democrats, 33% of independents and 23% of Republicans saying it carries credibility with them.

The major networks all have the majority trust of Democrats but less than 20% from Republicans. NBC, perhaps because of the ideological bent of MSNBC, does the best among Democrats at 62%. Overall 35% of voters trust it to 44% who do not. CBS does the worst among Republicans, with 69% distrusting it. A plurality of independents express distrust of all five outlets we tested.

Commentary's Jennifer Rubin raised some interesting points in her Tuesday piece concerning this poll:

Perhaps all that vilification from the White House demonstrated that Fox wasn’t the patsy of the administration... It is also a lesson to the mainstream media: sycophantic coverage doesn’t play well with public.

No it doesn't, especially when the economy is doing poorly and the Treasury is creating debt faster than a subprime mortgage lender.

Of course, it is interesting that PPP didn't ask what people thought about MSNBC. Was the polling group making a statement by not including in its poll what many consider a disgrace to journalism?

Hmmm.