A new Pew Research Center study reveals a widening partisan divide in how Americans engage with and trust the nation’s major news outlets. The survey, which analyzed responses from across the political spectrum, found that Democrats and Republicans not only prefer different media sources but also differ sharply in their levels of trust or distrust toward them.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are far more likely to both consume and trust legacy media and public broadcasters, such as CNN, NPR, PBS, and The New York Times. In contrast, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents report significantly higher distrust toward those same sources, while placing greater trust in outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, and The Joe Rogan Experience.

The findings, drawn from evaluations of 30 prominent US news outlets, reflect growing political polarization in media trust and highlight the extent to which partisan affiliation shapes Americans’ relationships with the news.

Where Republicans and Democrats get their news

According to the survey, Republicans rely on a narrower set of preferred outlets, with Fox News leading as the most commonly used source. Over half of Republicans (57%) say they regularly get news from Fox, far exceeding the percentage who turn to any other outlet.

Other frequently cited sources among Republicans include ABC (27%), NBC (24%), CBS (22%), and The Joe Rogan Experience (22%). More niche, right-leaning platforms, such as Newsmax, The Daily Wire, and the Tucker Carlson Network, are also more commonly used by Republicans than Democrats.

Democrats, by contrast, report a broader range of regularly used sources. Nearly half of Democrats turn to CNN (48%), NBC (47%), and ABC (46%), with significant portions also citing CBS (39%), MSNBC (33%), NPR (32%), The Associated Press (31%), PBS (31%), the BBC (30%), and The New York Times (29%).

Additional Democratic-favored outlets include The Washington Post, Politico, and The Atlantic, though to a lesser degree. Across these sources, usage by Democrats consistently exceeds that of Republicans, often by wide margins.

Measuring ideological leanings of news audiences

Related News

Senators' voices rise as children starve: 'How many more kids?'

Poland PM criticizes US Republicans for delaying Ukraine aid bill

Pew’s study also assessed the partisan orientation of each outlet’s regular audience, without classifying the content itself as left- or right-leaning. Rather, the analysis maps the average political identity and ideology (liberal, moderate, or conservative) of each outlet’s audience base.

Outlets with left-leaning audiences include NPR, The Guardian, Axios, and The Atlantic, all of which draw predominantly liberal and Democratic users. Conversely, Breitbart, Newsmax, the Tucker Carlson Network, The Daily Wire, and The Joe Rogan Experience host some of the most conservative-leaning audiences in the study.

Notably, Fox News, while skewing right, attracts a more ideologically diverse audience than other right-leaning sources. The study also found that Forbes and The Wall Street Journal serve audiences that align more closely with the average US adult in terms of ideological distribution.

Trust and distrust ratios: What Americans really think

The study employed a two-stage method to assess trust. First, respondents were asked whether they had heard of each outlet. Then, for those they recognized, they were asked whether they trusted or distrusted it. This approach reveals that trust levels are deeply polarized by party.

Among Republicans, only a few sources are trusted by more than one-quarter of respondents. A majority (56%) trust Fox News, and 31% trust The Joe Rogan Experience. While around 25% trust the major TV networks, even more say they actively distrust them.

In contrast, Democrats report broader trust across the media landscape. More than four-in-ten say they trust CNN, PBS, NPR, the BBC, The Associated Press, and The New York Times. They are also considerably less likely than Republicans to say they distrust most of the outlets in the study.

Some media brands serve as clear partisan flashpoints. For instance, 58% of Democrats trust CNN, while 58% of Republicans distrust it. On the reverse end, 56% of Republicans trust Fox News, while 64% of Democrats distrust it.

Smaller outlets like the Tucker Carlson Network or The Hill show less polarization, but their overall visibility is also lower, as many respondents across both parties report not being familiar with them. Pew accounted for this by analyzing trust-to-distrust ratios, offering a clearer picture of net sentiment even for lesser-known outlets.

The data confirm that while Democrats are more inclined to trust a majority of the 30 sources studied, Republicans exhibit more distrust than trust toward most of them.

Implications for media literacy, public discourse

This growing partisan media consumption divide raises significant concerns for civic engagement and the role of journalism in democratic societies. As Democrats and Republicans consume largely separate information ecosystems and diverge sharply on which sources they view as credible, shared narratives and consensus-building become increasingly difficult.

These patterns, echoing similar findings from 2019, suggest that political identity has become a powerful filter not only for interpreting news content but also for determining which platforms Americans deem trustworthy.

While some overlap remains, i.e, CNN is used by 20% of Republicans and Fox News by 18% of Democrats, such crossover is increasingly rare. In an environment where trust in media is both partisan and personal, fostering critical media literacy and strengthening independent journalism may be key to bridging this widening gap.