How does CNN's audience trust compare to other major U.S. news outlets?
Executive summary
CNN remains one of the most widely used and polarizing national news brands: usage rates put it near the top of outlets Americans say they consulted in recent months, yet measures of net trust and partisan splits show strong divergence between Democrats and Republicans [1] [2] [3]. Compared with legacy broadcast networks and local news, CNN’s trust profile is mixed — high among Democrats and many “trusters,” but significantly lower among Republicans, leaving CNN less broadly trusted than some legacy outlets and more comparable to other major cable competitors on key measures [4] [5] [3].
1. Usage and raw audience reach: CNN sits near the top of national outlets
Surveys by YouGov show that CNN is among the most-used outlets in recent months — for example, in the 52-outlet 2024 poll Fox News (34%) and CNN (32%) were the two most commonly used sources, and YouGov’s 2025 update reports continued high use with changes by party group [1] [2]. Cable ratings data and audience snapshots likewise place CNN among the larger cable news channels (USTVDB reporting CNN as a top-ten channel and documenting recent weekly audience measures), although cable primetime viewership patterns generally favor Fox News over CNN [6] [7]. Those raw reach numbers explain why CNN remains central to national conversations even as trust metrics vary.
2. Partisan trust gap: CNN is exceptionally polarized
Across multiple polling series, CNN consistently shows one of the largest partisan trust gaps: YouGov highlighted a 96-point net trust difference between Democrats and Republicans in 2024 and continued polarization in 2025, while Pew and related analyses report that Democrats overwhelmingly trust CNN at much higher rates than Republicans, who tend to distrust it [1] [2] [5]. Pew’s work also underscores that among Americans who say they generally trust national news organizations, roughly half express trust in CNN alongside ABC, NBC and CBS, but those who distrust national news are likelier to prefer right-leaning outlets — reinforcing CNN’s sharply segmented trust base [4].
3. How CNN compares with legacy broadcast and other cable outlets on trust
When compared to legacy broadcast networks and public media, CNN’s net trust often lags those outlets in cross-partisan terms: surveys have shown ABC, CBS and NBC frequently scoring similar or higher trust levels among broader samples, and local TV/newspapers remain among the most trusted institutions overall [3] [8]. Against cable peers, CNN’s trust profile is closer to MSNBC than to Fox News on partisan alignment — both CNN and Fox are repeatedly described as highly polarizing, whereas broadcast networks and PBS often show more bipartisan trust [2] [8].
4. Metrics matter: usage, net trust, ratings and changing trends
Different measures produce different pictures: usage or audience size (YouGov usage figures, cable ratings) show reach, while “net trust” (trust minus distrust in YouGov/Pew questions) captures reputation; CNN can have high usage yet lower net trust relative to some peers, a pattern noted specifically by YouGov in 2025 where net trust for CNN was lower relative to its usage [2]. Independent snapshots vary — Statista reported only 13% saying CNN was “very trustworthy” in one 2023 survey, while other polls place trust in the 40–50% range depending on question wording and sample — underlining how phrasing and methodology shift results [9] [3].
5. Bottom line: broadly influential but not uniformly trusted
Taken together, the evidence shows CNN is one of the most-used national outlets and remains influential, but its trust is uneven: strong among Democrats and people who generally trust national news, weak among Republicans, and mixed relative to legacy broadcast and local outlets that often register higher bipartisan trust [1] [2] [4] [3]. Public debates about “trust in media” therefore reflect both measurable audience reach and deep partisan sorting; available sources document these patterns but differ in exact numbers depending on methodology, so no single poll fully settles comparative trust rankings [2] [4].