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Which news outlets ranked lowest in trustworthiness in 2024 surveys?
Executive summary
National surveys in 2024 show public trust in “the media” broadly at historic lows — Gallup reports only about 31% (Sept. 3–15, 2024) and other Gallup measures later record 28% — and sectoral polls identify particular national brands as among the least trusted (e.g., Fox News and CNN drew high distrust rates in a Digital News Report summary) [1] [2] [3].
1. Media trust is collapsing at the institution level
Multiple national trackers in 2024 describe American confidence in news organizations as at or near record lows: Gallup’s annual measure puts trust in newspapers, television and radio to report “fully, accurately and fairly” around the low‑30s in 2024 and drops to 28% in subsequent Gallup reporting cited here [1] [2]. Coverage summarizes this as media becoming the least‑trusted civic and political institution in some polls [4].
2. Which individual outlets score worst in 2024 surveys — what the polls actually report
Available reporting names specific outlets as receiving high distrust in 2024 polling: a Digital News Report summary cited by Digital Content Next notes Fox News and CNN had among the highest shares of people saying they do not trust them (43% distrusting Fox News, 37% distrusting CNN in that summary) [3]. YouGov’s 2024 survey covered 52 outlets and produced outlet‑level trust scores, but the summary in our results set does not list a ranked bottom‑few by name — it confirms that several major national brands were trusted by fewer than half of Americans [5]. The sources therefore identify a pattern (high distrust for major cable and national outlets) but do not provide a single unified “bottom five” across all polls [3] [5].
3. Different polls use different measures and samples — that changes “who’s worst”
YouGov, Reuters Institute/ Digital News Report, Gallup, AP‑sponsored polls and others use distinct question wording (trust vs. trustworthy/untrustworthy, “most of the time” vs. “a great deal/fair amount”), sample frames and timing; those methodological differences produce different outlet rankings and make cross‑survey lists of “lowest trust” inconsistent [5] [3] [1]. For example, Gallup reports an aggregate institutional trust level for “the media,” while YouGov publishes outlet‑level net trust scores; Digital News Report-derived summaries focus on levels of active distrust for named networks [1] [5] [3].
4. Political polarization strongly shapes which outlets are distrusted
Polls repeatedly show trust broken down by party and age: Republicans, independents and younger adults are especially skeptical in many measures. YouGov’s 2024 item finds Democrats and Republicans sharply disagree about CNN and Fox News, with both networks controversial across partisan lines [5]. Gallup and other summaries stress that distrust is widespread across parties but uneven in magnitude, which helps explain why a given outlet can be despised by one side and trusted by the other [1] [6].
5. Local outlets often remain more trusted than national ones
Several surveys cited in available reporting note a persistent trust advantage for local news: Digital Content Next highlights that local television news and local newspapers register substantially higher trust than big national brands, even as national media overall decline [3]. Gallup and other coverage likewise identify local/state institutions as among the most trusted civic institutions, in contrast to national media [1] [4].
6. International and thematic variations — UK and global polls tell a different but related story
Outside the U.S., 2024 tracking by Edelman and Reuters Institute shows national differences: for instance, the UK ranked low in Edelman’s 28‑country Trust Barometer in 2024 (31% trusting the media in that survey) [7]. Statista/Reuters Institute compilations show cross‑country variation in overall media trust — relevant when asking “which outlets” if the question is global rather than U.S.‑focused [8] [7].
7. What the sources do not provide (and why that matters for definitive lists)
None of the supplied articles publishes a single, authoritative “bottom ranked” list of outlets across all 2024 polls; the Digital News Report summary and YouGov outlet poll report brand‑level distrust for specific networks but use different metrics, while Gallup focuses on media as an institution rather than outlet‑by‑outlet ranks [3] [5] [1]. Therefore, an absolute, cross‑survey ranking of the “lowest trustworthiness” outlets in 2024 cannot be produced from these sources alone — available sources do not mention a consolidated bottom‑rank list covering all major 2024 surveys.
8. Reporting implications and why readers should care
The convergence of multiple surveys on low media trust is itself the news: whether named outlets appear at the bottom depends on which poll you consult and which metric you use [1] [3] [5]. Readers should treat outlet‑level rankings as survey‑specific and pay attention to question wording, sample composition and partisan breakdowns when interpreting “most” or “least” trusted claims [1] [5].
If you want, I can extract the full YouGov outlet rankings or the detailed Digital News Report tables referenced in these summaries (if you provide those datasets or permit me to fetch them), which would let us compile a clearer outlet‑level bottom list for 2024.