What are the most — and least — trusted news sites? What Americans said in a poll
In a media landscape clouded by cynicism, one name shines through as the most trusted brand in news: The Weather Channel, according to new polling.
The latest YouGov survey found that — for the fourth year in a row — the Weather Channel ranked as the most trusted news source in America, easily putting its many competitors to shame.
Meanwhile, the National Enquirer landed at the other end of the spectrum, earning the unenviable title of the least trusted name in the business.
That said, responses varied significantly based on partisan affiliation, with Democrats generally expressing more confidence in news sites. And, when it comes to news from social media, trust levels have increased.
Most and least trusted sites
The poll — which sampled 2,211 U.S. adults May 11-12 — gave respondents a list of 52 outlets and asked them to rate them as very trustworthy, trustworthy, untrustworthy, very untrustworthy or none of these.
A net trust score was then calculated for each outlet by subtracting the untrustworthy share from the trustworthy share.
As previously mentioned, The Weather Channel dominated, earning a +49 score. It was followed by the BBC (+26), PBS (+25) and Forbes (+24).
After these came ESPN (+21), The Wall Street Journal (+20) and two wire service agencies: Reuters (+17) and the Associated Press (+17).
A smattering of print, digital and television news sources made up the middle of the pack, including the New York Times (+14), CNN (+8), the Hill (+6) and Fox Business Channel (+2).
Out of the 52 sites, just a dozen — including tabloid and right-wing outfits — earned net negative trustworthiness scores.
The National Enquirer was, by far, the least trusted news source, with a score of -37. It was followed by Infowars (-15), Breitbart News (-7), People (-4) and Comedy Central (-4).
Placing slightly above these were Al Jazeera (-3), the Washington Examiner (-2), OAN (-2) and HuffPost (-2).
And, compared to previous years, trust in most outlets has remained about steady, with many shifting just a few points in either direction.
Partisan breakdown
The poll — which has a margin of error of about 3 percentage points — also broke down responses based on partisanship.
Democrats were generally far more trusting than Republicans of the media, giving higher ratings to 44 of the 52 outlets.
PBS was the most trusted source for Democrats, earning a +66 rating from them. This was followed by the BBC (+62), NBC (+59) and the Weather Channel (+59).
In contrast, Republicans gave their highest rating to the Weather Channel (+48). Fox News came in a close second, with a score of +46. After this came the Fox Business Channel (+40), Newsmax (+25) and OAN (+20).
Social media
The poll also found that a growing share of Americans express trust in news that comes from social media.
Across 12 platforms that were surveyed, trust in all of them increased from 2024. For example, YouTube's score went from +1 to +12 and TikTok grew from -35 to -26.
Republican trust in all social media platforms increased, while Democratic trust declined when it came to four sites: X (previously known as Twitter), Truth Social, Facebook and Nextdoor.
Younger Americans were also more likely than their older counterparts to express confidence in news disseminated by social media.
For example, YouTube earned a score of +27 among 18-44-year-olds, while the platform earned a score of 0 among those 44 and older.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Biden's frailty has Democrats scrambling to rebrand - or jump ship like Karine Jean-Pierre
Joe Biden's former allies are running for the hills. Questions about the former president's mental faculties took on a new urgency last month thanks to the artificial drip-drip of revelations leaked to outlets ahead of the release of Original Sin, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book about the ill-fated Biden re-election bid. Now, the Trump administration and GOP Congress are pushing the narrative along with investigations into the use of an 'autopen' by the former president when signing official documents — a move Donald Trump has baselessly alleged could mean that some shadowy figure was really running the show for four years. The Democratic Party is in the wilderness, electorally speaking, and undergoing a real internal reckoning over the mismanaged 2024 re-election campaign of Joe Biden and the final stretch sprint that was Kamala Harris's own bid for the top job. No one is more lost in this reshuffle than the members of Bidenworld, who found themselves jobless and loathed by a certain segment of the party after last year. Facing the clear prospect of being blacklisted by future Democratic campaigns and causes, some are rebranding themselves. Others are cutting ties altogether. Wednesday arrived in Washington with the news that Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden's White House press secretary for four years, was in the latter group. Hawking a new book titled Independent (no relation!), Jean-Pierre announced through representatives that she is leaving the party. The book's description labels the Biden White House 'broken' and was met with skepticism from journalists, who questioned how 'outside the party lines' the president's former press secretary could organically be. The news also enraged Democrats with ties to the former administration, according to Politico, who called it a 'grift' and mostly held to fuming in group chats. Others in this category have dropped off the face of the (political) Earth: Jen O'Malley Dillon, Harris's former campaign chair, hasn't made a public comment since appearing on a Pod Save America interview in the immediate aftermath of the election. Same with ex-campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. Several other top and mid-level Harris and Biden campaign officials have either sunk into relative obscurity or, such as was the case with former Biden White House spokesman Andrew Bates, struck out on their own. That's to say nothing, of course, of Harris herself. The former vice president continues to be virtually invisible as she reportedly weighs a run for governor of her home state (where she hasn't lived for four years), against what would likely be a field crowded with other Democrats. Doing so would expose her to tough questions about her former running mate. She has yet to pull the trigger, with that likely being a major reason why. There's one clear reason for this: Joe Biden's continued inability to refute any of the concerns about his age and ability to make a case for himself. It seemed like the former president's fade into obscurity began the day he ceded the presidential position on the re-election ticket to Harris; his most prominent moment in the weeks following was his pardon of Hunter, his son, in December. In a half-hearted effort to head off the worst of the Original Sin blowback, the former president appeared — alongside the former first lady — on The View, a comparatively friendly interview, before the book's release. It did not go well. A whispery ex-president's sentences were finished for him, and there was little sign of the fiery scrapper from Scranton whose antics were once the subject of memes and TV references, not derision. Neither the GOP nor a scandal-hungry Capitol press corps is eager to let this story die. Joe Biden seems wholly unable to kill it. The only question now is how long the stink of the last year remains on those affected, and how widespread it really is. Could it blunt Harris's ambitions? Probably. Less clear: its effect on Cabinet officials, like Pete Buttigieg. Or Rahm Emanuel, Biden's former ambassador to Japan, who's now publicly indicating that he may run in 2028. In the end, the former president's re-election bid could end up irreversibly tarring a whole segment of Democratic operatives and even a few of the party's (formerly) rising stars.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bipartisan group of assembly members urge Newsom to delay RTO order
( — A group of 17 California assemblymembers, made up of two Republicans and 15 Democrats, called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to delay his return-to-office order. The lawmakers asked that state workers not be made to return to the office four days a week until the State Auditor completes a report on the order. Video: State workers protest in front of the California Department of Human Services (March 2025) Newsom's order is scheduled to take effect July 1. The auditor's report is scheduled to be released later this summer, the lawmakers said. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested the audit address a number of issues, including how much each state agency relies on telework, how much the state would save on office leases, telework's impact on the state's climate goals and the impact of telework on employee productivity and customer satisfaction. The group, led by Asm. Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) and Assistant Majority Leader Robert Garcia (D-Rancho Cucamunga), argue that telework has numerous benefits the state should try to keep. 'The State Auditor is currently studying the benefits of California's telework policies, and it is critical that the Governor's RTO mandate be put on hold until this important work is completed,' Assemblymember Hoover said. 'Embracing telework where feasible has the potential to save California taxpayers millions of dollars, reduce traffic congestion, and help make state employers more competitive with the private sector. I appreciate Assemblymember Garcia and my legislative colleagues for joining this effort to support state workers.' The letter also said that Downtown Sacramento's parking infrastructure was not suited for so many in-person workers. 'In a recent memo from the Department of General Services, the Legislature was informed that the availability of daily parking passes will be capped and reduced each day due to the demand created by RTO,' the letter said. 'Eliminating telework will create significant parking capacity issues and will harm productivity for existing in-person state workers as well.' In his executive order, Newsom said research showed that in-person work 'enhanced collaboration, cohesion, and communication, improved opportunities for mentorship, and improved supervision and accountability.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Big Beautiful Bill' Falters as Musk Ramps up Bid to ‘Kill' It
Elon Musk attends President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2025. Credit - Saul Loeb—AFP via Getty Images President Donald Trump's sprawling tax-and-spending proposal—touted as the centerpiece of his second-term agenda—is facing intensifying resistance in the Senate, as fresh concerns about its impact on the deficit and a ramped-up campaign by Elon Musk to torpedo the entire package threaten to derail the legislation's fragile path to passage. At the center of the turmoil on Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' is a sobering new assessment from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which reported Wednesday that the bill would add $2.4 trillion to federal deficits over the next decade while stripping health coverage from nearly 11 million Americans, largely through deep Medicaid cuts and the imposition of new work requirements. That analysis sparked alarm among some Senate Republicans, several of whom are demanding substantial changes. 'I think Congress is sort of like a bad behaving teenager when it comes to spending,' Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, one of the Republicans threatening to vote against the bill, told TIME on Wednesday. 'If you had a teenager that you were giving $100 a week and they wasted all of it on gambling or on booze, would you give them $200?' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and other prominent Republicans tried to dismiss the CBO's projections by arguing its analysis was flawed or biased. But fiscal hawks in the Senate remained dug in, buoyed by former Trump advisor Elon Musk, who extended his all-out offensive against the bill. A day after using his vast social media reach to brand the bill a 'disgusting abomination,' he posted more than two dozen messages on X on Wednesday attacking the legislation, as well as urging his followers to call Congress and 'KILL the BILL.' Musk's ire appears especially focused on how the bill's expansion of the deficit would erase the cost-cutting he hoped to accomplish with the Department of Government Efficiency, which he led under the Trump Administration. He has also expressed concerns with provisions in the House-passed bill that would terminate clean energy tax credits and electric vehicle subsidies established under the Inflation Reduction Act. Tesla Energy, Musk's solar and battery company, has warned that ending those credits 'would threaten America's energy independence and the reliability of our grid.' The sharp reversal has blindsided some Republicans, who were counting on Musk's tacit support. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has spearheaded the bill's passage, tried to stem the fallout by reaching out to Musk directly. 'I hope he comes around,' Johnson said Wednesday, though he added that Musk has not returned his call. Inside the Senate, Johnson's broader strategy—pushing through House priorities quickly and with minimal changes—is beginning to unravel. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota acknowledged that significant changes to the bill are now unavoidable. 'We'll make some modifications to it, strengthen and improve it,' Thune said Tuesday. 'But at the end of the day, the math is simple—51 in the Senate, 218 in the House. That's what we're working toward.' One potential modification Thune has expressed interest in is scaling back the $40,000 state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap in the House version of the bill, an increase from the current $10,000 cap that House Republicans from high-tax states secured as a concession. But not all Republicans agree with the additional spending: 'There really isn't a single Republican senator who cares much about the SALT issue,' Thune told reporters as he departed a meeting with Trump and Senate Republicans on Wednesday evening, saying that they discussed ways to dial that money back. It's a move that could alienate House Republicans from New York and New Jersey, who say their support is contingent on the SALT provision. "Let's be clear — no SALT, no deal," New York Republican Mike Lawler said Wednesday in a post on X. Additionally, the bill's sweeping changes to Medicaid, such as imposing new work requirements, are a sticking point. Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Jim Justice of West Virginia have raised red flags over a provision that would eliminate provider taxes—mechanisms that states use to fund Medicaid—which they argue could shutter rural hospitals. Hawley is also opposed to a so-called 'sick tax' in the bill, which would impose new charges on low-income patients for medical visits. Other Republican Senators, including Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, may also put up roadblocks over potential cuts to Medicaid. Trump has personally intervened, holding calls with Sens. Hawley, Paul, and Scott. But there is little evidence he has swayed skeptics. Paul, a libertarian-leaning lawmaker who has vocally pushed back on many Trump Administration policies, told TIME that he plans to vote against the bill over its provision to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars. 'Congress has been acting irresponsibly for decades,' he said. 'We spend $2 trillion more than to come in. They should have a very narrow leash. The only debt ceiling they get should be very, very narrow in time and very, very small in amount. And the more we vote on the debt ceiling, the better. I'd vote on it every three months.' Trump, meanwhile, renewed his calls on Wednesday for scrapping the debt ceiling altogether. The growing litany of disputes has created a daunting legislative gauntlet for Trump's signature bill. Senate committees are now beginning to draft their own version, starting with less controversial sections and leaving the most divisive elements—Medicaid, energy, taxes—for later. Should the Senate approve any amended version, it must still clear the House once again—no small task given the narrow margins and the emboldened dissent among House Republicans. The stakes are high not just for Trump, but for Republicans heading into a contentious midterm season. Failure to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts would translate into a tax increase for many Americans. Trump's legislation would also boost spending on defense and border security, while reducing spending on Medicaid and food stamps. Write to Nik Popli at
