News Sources With Greatest Ratio of Trust to Distrust Percent of total respondents who trust and distrust the sources
The full population picture doesn’t tell the whole story. If you look simply at the total percentage of online adults who say they trust a news organization for news about government and politics, several mainstream television outlets rise to the top. CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News are all trusted by more than four-in-ten web-using U.S. adults. These high numbers, though, are intertwined with the fact that more than nine-in-ten respondents have heard of these five news sources. Trust and distrust were only asked of sources respondents had heard of, thus, the better known a source is, the more Americans in total who can voice trust or distrust of that source. A source like The Economist, on the other hand, is known by just 34% of respondents and so could never have a trust level exceeding 34% — even if everyone who had heard of it trusted it.
What about the ratio of trust to distrust? Another way to think of trust is to compare trust and distrust in a news source. In other words, what is the ratio of people who trust a news outlet to those who distrust it? This ratio is based just on those who have rated the sources as trusted or distrusted, regardless of how well known the source is.
The result is a different list of news brands: The Economist, BBC, NPR, PBS and The Wall Street Journal are among those with the highest ratio of trust to distrust – even if the overall percentages of those who trust them are smaller than for some other sources. Only 34% of online Americans, for example, have heard of The Economist, but there is far more trust (12%) than distrust (2%) when it comes to news about government and politics (20% neither trust nor distrust The Economist). The BBC is recognized by a greater portion of respondents (76%), but is similarly more trusted (36%) than distrusted (7%).
News Sources With Greatest Ratio of  | Trust to Distrust  | Percent of total respondents who trust and  | distrust the sources  | Trust Distrust  | TRUST/DISTRUST  | RATIO  | Economist 12% 2%  | 5.7 to  | BBC  | 36  | 4.8to  | NPR  | 29  | 3.2to  | PBS  | 38  | 12  | 3.1 to  | Wall Street  | 31 10  | 3.1 to  | Journal  | American Trends Panel (wave 1). Survey conducted  | March 19 April 29, 2014 Q20, 21a-21b Based on web  | respondents Ratios are calcul lated based on perce intages to  | the respondents second decimal place  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 