Credibility of major news organizations in the U.S. 2017-2022

According to a survey held among adults in the United States in February 2022, ABC and CBS were considered to be the most credible news sources in the country, with 61 percent of respondents believing the organizations to be very or somewhat credible. Sources which fared less well were MSNBC, Fox News, National Public Radio, and HuffPost, with less than 50 percent of adults agreeing that they found these to be reliable news outlets. The credibility of all the news sources in the ranking was higher in 2022 than in the previous year, though the figures in 2021 were particularly low.

Trust and bias in news

Finding trustworthy, impartial news sources can be difficult for audiences in a world where fake news is in constant circulation and bias in news is a growing concern. More than 50 percent of total respondents to a survey held in early 2020 believed that there was a fair amount or great deal of bias in the news sources they used most often. The same study found that close to 70 percent of respondents were more concerned with bias in news that other people may consume than with their own news source.

A report exploring trust in news found that radio, network news, and newspapers were the most trusted news sources in the United States, whereas social media was not considered reliable in this regard. The lack of trust in news on social media has yet to affect consumption – social networks are the most used source of news among many consumers, particularly younger generations. In fact, some news consumers are moving away from official news platforms altogether and getting their updates from influencers rather than journalists.