Pew Research has a new study out today on, among other things, which news outlets are the most and least trusted by Americans. Most of the results are what you’d expect – conservatives trust Fox News, liberals trust MSNBC, etc. But some results were telling.
Conservatives trust Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, liberals do not. Liberals trust Ed Schultz and Al Jazeera America, conservatives do not. But there were some surprises in those numbers as well.
For example, people who are “consistently conservative” and those “mostly conservative” had majorities trusting Beck and Sean Hannity, but it was a wash when it comes to Limbaugh. Schultz and Al Jazeera won over the trust of those “consistently liberal,” but saw a wash themselves among “mostly liberal” viewers.
None of the major networks were trusted by “consistently conservative” viewers, but were by a majority of everyone else, including the “mixed” middle. MSNBC and Fox News were trusted not only by those sharing either consistent or mostly their views, but also by moderates.
ABC was the only network to win over “mostly conservative” viewers, but still was seen as untrusted by the “consistently conservative” crowd.
The Wall Street Journal was the only news source to be trusted by a majority of all members of the political spectrum.
And the worst? The least trusted name in news? The website Buzzfeed. Famous for listicles, gifs, and quizzes, Buzzfeed was the only outlet that had majorities in every group across the political spectrum think of them as untrustworthy.
Interestingly, there were a few outlets that had majorities in every category except “consistently conservative” Americans who trusted them – The Economist, BBC, ABC, USA Today, and Google News – but zero who had the reverse. Those who identified as “consistently liberal” and “mostly liberal” were unified in their distrust of media outlets.