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Trust in Media 2026: Which news sources Americans use and trust

YouGov · Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik · last updated

The Weather Channel persists as the most trusted news source, as it was in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025

Americans continue to rely on a wide variety of sources to stay informed, but trust in those sources remains uneven and shaped by politics. In our 2026 Trust in Media survey, trust declined for most of the news outlets we measured. Only a handful made modest gains that were generally within the survey’s margin of error. Despite these declines, the broader hierarchy of trust remains relatively stable: The outlets Americans trust most and least have changed little from previous years.

Our latest survey examines how Americans view 48 major news outlets and 17 online sources, as well as where they get their news and how they perceive the ideological leanings of prominent media organizations. In doing so, we revisit questions asked on similar surveys in 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022. The survey also reveals persistent partisan divides, growing distrust towards many sources, and an evolving media environment in which social media and AI tools play a major role in how Americans consume news.

 

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