Public Policy Polling’s News Trust Poll

Public Policy Polling recently released the results of its third annual News Trust Poll. This poll provides the most important information that can be found anywhere on how the American public interacts with the press. PPP asked 700 likely voters whether or not they trusted each television news source and broke down the results by demographics.

PBS is the only news-source that that over fifty percent of respondents trusted. 52 percent of those polled found it trustworthy. That breath of support, the greatest of any news channel polled, does not translate into ratings success. Its nightly newscast, PBS Newshour, has the smallest audience out of all the nightly newscasts. It is curious that the most widely trusted television news-source has the smallest audience. 

When respondents were asked to identify the news-source they personally trusted the most, Fox News received the most votes, at 34 percent. Unsurprisingly, this was due largely to conservative respondents. This result represents the depth of support for a news source. When respondents were asked to identify the source they personally trusted the least, Fox News also received the most votes, at 34 percent. Also unsurprisingly, this was due largely to liberal and moderate responses.

The most important insight from this poll is how liberals, moderates, and conservatives interact with the news differently. Liberals trust everyone except Fox News. That means that for each news source other than fox, more liberals trusted the source than distrusted it. Moderates have the same response. Conservatives have the opposite reaction; they don’t trust anyone but Fox News.

The results are the same when broken down by party affiliation; however, the trend is clearer when broken down by ideology. The demographic groups are closer in size when broken down by party.  Democrats and Independents trust everyone but Fox. Republicans don’t trust anyone but Fox. I have included response numbers for both ideology and party breakdowns.

		Percent of respondents who described themselves as
		Liberal	Moderate	Conservative
		28	27	44
	Base	Liberal	Moderate	Conservative
ABC
Trust	37	53	56	15
Distrust	40	18	17	69
Unsure	22	29	27	16
CBS
Trust	40	59	57	17
Distrust	42	20	19	69
Unsure	18	22	23	13
CNN
Trust	43	65	56	21
Distrust	39	16	22	64
Unsure	18	20	22	16
Comedy Central
Trust	28	43	36	13
Distrust	46	30	34	65
Unsure	26	27	29	22
Fox News
Trust	45	19	28	72
Distrust	42	70	55	15
Unsure	13	10	17	12
MSNBC
Trust	38	59	49	18
Distrust	43	21	27	67
Unsure	19	20	24	15
NBC
Trust	44	70	60	17
Distrust	38	14	15	68
Unsure	17	15	24	15
PBS
Trust	52	76	66	28
Distrust	30	13	11	54
Unsure	17	10	23	19

		Percent of respondents who identify as
		Democrat	Republican	Independent
		41	35	24
	Base	Democrat	Republican	Independent
ABC
Trust	37	57	14	41
Distrust	40	19	70	31
Unsure	22	24	16	28
CBS
Trust	40	58	17	44
Distrust	42	23	71	30
Unsure	18	19	12	26
CNN
Trust	43	65	18	44
Distrust	39	16	67	35
Unsure	18	19	15	21
Comedy Central
Trust	28	36	12	37
Distrust	46	32	71	35
Unsure	26	32	17	28
Fox News
Trust	45	25	73	36
Distrust	42	61	17	48
Unsure	13	14	10	16
MSNBC
Trust	38	56	18	40
Distrust	43	23	69	37
Unsure	19	20	14	23
NBC
Trust	44	67	17	48
Distrust	38	17	69	29
Unsure	17	16	14	24
PBS
Trust	52	66	26	66
Distrust	30	17	56	15
Unsure	17	17	17	19

Liberals and moderates generally trust the mainstream media. Conservatives do not. Conservatives believe that most news sources have an overwhelming liberal bias, to the point they cannot be trusted. Thus inherent in the claim of liberal bias is malpractice, concepts that I view as distinct. It is my belief that the conservative perception of liberal bias has more to do with the criticisms of Rush Limbaugh and conservative politicians than it does with the news coverage these sources produce. Often our views of news sources come from others’ characterizations rather than our interactions with them ourselves.

Certainly you can find instances of false or misleading coverage in mainstream news sources that benefit Democrats or promote a liberal agenda. You can also find instances of false, misleading, or incomplete coverage that benefit Republicans and promote a conservative agenda. Often, for fear of being accused of liberal bias, the news media unfairly assigns equal blame to both sides in a partisan dispute (see debt ceiling) or treats the basic background facts to a story as if they are in dispute, when experts in the fields almost universally agree (see global warming). Over time, however, most reporting at mainstream news outlets is balanced and trustworthy. I think we have much more to fear from false-balance reporting than from liberal bias.

The other primary problem with mainstream reports is that they often get reaction to a major story from the president and from the leaders of the Republicans in Congress. Experts in the field, citizen activists, and even Congressmen who disagree with their party leadership on the issue are ignored. This was seen in many articles following Obama’s plan for withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

Next year I hope PPP adds more news sources to the list, as they did this year. Major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as NPR and major talk radio personalities should be added. The responses for those news sources would be a valuable addition to the most insightful public opinion poll on the news media.