What are the most -- and least -- trusted news sites? What Americans said in a poll

Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald on Jun 3, 2025

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In a media landscape clouded by cynicism, one name shines through as the most trusted brand in news: The Weather Channel, according to new polling.

The latest YouGov survey found that — for the fourth year in a row — the Weather Channel ranked as the most trusted news source in America, easily putting its many competitors to shame.

Meanwhile, the National Enquirer landed at the other end of the spectrum, earning the unenviable title of the least trusted name in the business.

That said, responses varied significantly based on partisan affiliation, with Democrats generally expressing more confidence in news sites. And, when it comes to news from social media, trust levels have increased.

Most and least trusted sites

The poll — which sampled 2,211 U.S. adults May 11-12 — gave respondents a list of 52 outlets and asked them to rate them as very trustworthy, trustworthy, untrustworthy, very untrustworthy or none of these.

A net trust score was then calculated for each outlet by subtracting the untrustworthy share from the trustworthy share.

As previously mentioned, The Weather Channel dominated, earning a +49 score. It was followed by the BBC (+26), PBS (+25) and Forbes (+24).

After these came ESPN (+21), The Wall Street Journal (+20) and two wire service agencies: Reuters (+17) and the Associated Press (+17).

A smattering of print, digital and television news sources made up the middle of the pack, including the New York Times (+14), CNN (+8), the Hill (+6) and Fox Business Channel (+2).

Out of the 52 sites, just a dozen — including tabloid and right-wing outfits — earned net negative trustworthiness scores.

The National Enquirer was, by far, the least trusted news source, with a score of -37. It was followed by Infowars (-15), Breitbart News (-7), People (-4) and Comedy Central (-4).

Placing slightly above these were Al Jazeera (-3), the Washington Examiner (-2), OAN (-2) and HuffPost (-2).

And, compared to previous years, trust in most outlets has remained about steady, with many shifting just a few points in either direction.

Partisan breakdown

The poll — which has a margin of error of about 3 percentage points — also broke down responses based on partisanship.

Democrats were generally far more trusting than Republicans of the media, giving higher ratings to 44 of the 52 outlets.

PBS was the most trusted source for Democrats, earning a +66 rating from them. This was followed by the BBC (+62), NBC (+59) and the Weather Channel (+59).

In contrast, Republicans gave their highest rating to the Weather Channel (+48). Fox News came in a close second, with a score of +46. After this came the Fox Business Channel (+40), Newsmax (+25) and OAN (+20).

Social media

The poll also found that a growing share of Americans express trust in news that comes from social media.

Across 12 platforms that were surveyed, trust in all of them increased from 2024. For example, YouTube’s score went from +1 to +12 and TikTok grew from -35 to -26.

Republican trust in all social media platforms increased, while Democratic trust declined when it came to four sites: X (previously known as Twitter), Truth Social, Facebook and Nextdoor.

Younger Americans were also more likely than their older counterparts to express confidence in news disseminated by social media.

For example, YouTube earned a score of +27 among 18-44-year-olds, while the platform earned a score of 0 among those 44 and older.

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