Republicans and Democrats differ on media sources they trust, study finds
FILE - In this photo illustration, the American business focused international daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal logo seen displayed on a smartphone with an economic stock exchange index graph in the background. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Ch
A recent survey found which news outlets people in the United States tend to trust based on their political standing.
Pew Research Center's survey, released Tuesday, illustrated that Democrats trust more news sources than Republicans, and rarely do their tastes intersect.
Interestingly, the business-oriented publications Forbes and The Wall Street Journal share an unusual distinction: They're the only two of 30 news sources that sympathizers for both parties told the Pew they're more likely to trust than distrust.
Fox News vs. PBS, CNN, BBC, NYT, and more
Of 30 news sources tested, people who said they were Republican or leaned Republican were more likely to say they trust eight of them.
The other side:
Democrats had more trust than distrust for 23 different sources. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal were the only two on both lists.
Dig deeper:
There were only two news sources tested that more than three in 10 Republicans said they were likely to trust — Fox News Channel, with 56%, and the Joe Rogan podcast, with 31%.
Meanwhile, 13 of the sources had trust levels of more than 30% among Democrats — the three broadcast news divisions, PBS, CNN, BBC, The New York Times, The Associated Press, MSNBC, National Public Radio, USA Today, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
Nearly two of three Democrats said they distrust Fox News, but 19% said they trust it. Among Republicans, 21% said they distrust Fox.
The survey finds that 23% of Republicans said they trust PBS, while 26% distrust PBS. Democrats trust PBS by a 59% to 4% margin.
Pew also found that more than twice as many Republicans distrust NPR than trust it, while Democrats trust NPR by a 47% to 3% margin.
What they're saying:
"It's still a very polarized media ecosystem," said Elisa Shearer, a senior researcher at Pew. "It's too early to tell if there will be changes in the future."
Joe Rogan podcast creates divide
Trump to appear on Joe Rogan's podcast this week
Former President Trump will record an interview Friday with podcasting giant Joe Rogan.
Rogan's podcast illustrated some of the sharp differences between the parties and why President Donald Trump's interview there proved influential during the last election.
Forty percent of Democrats said they distrust Rogan's show as a source, while only 3% of Democrats trust it as a news source. Others said they didn't know enough about the show to offer an opinion.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from a Pew Research Center survey based on data from Wave 165 of the American Trends Panel, Pew’s nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. The survey was conducted from March 10 to March 16, 2025. The Associated Press also contributed. This story was reported from Los Angeles.