Local news outperforms network brands’ trust levels as CBS, Fox register significant drops

Americans’ trust in major news brands declined broadly in 2026, with most national outlets included in the Reuters Institute’s annual Digital News Report posting lower trust scores than the previous year.

The 2026 data show local television news and local newspapers remain the most trusted news sources among the brands and categories included in the survey, though both slipped from 2025.

Other local television news had a 56% trust score in 2026, down from 59% for local television news in 2025. Other regional or local newspapers posted a 53% trust score, down from 55% for regional or local newspapers a year earlier.

The report also examined brand trust by asking respondents about news brands they had heard of, with “trust” reflecting scores of 6-10 on a 10-point scale, “neither” reflecting a score of 5 and “don’t trust” reflecting scores of 0-4.

The Reuters Institute notes that the list of brands included in the survey is not exhaustive, meaning the rankings reflect only the outlets and categories tested. Year-over-year comparisons are also affected by changes in how some brands were listed, including NBC News and MS NOW, which were separated in 2026 after NBC and MSNBC News appeared as a combined option in 2025.

By the institute’s own admission, its findings should not be treated as a list of the most or least trusted brands.

BBC News had the highest trust score among named national or international brands in 2026, with 47% of respondents who had heard of the brand saying they trusted it. That was down from 52% in 2025, when the chart labeled the brand as BBC.

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ABC News and NBC News followed at 44% trust in 2026. ABC News dropped from 47% in 2025 while NBC News’ comparison is harder to gauge due the Versant spinoff that meant NBC and MSNBC stopped sharing news resources and the new MS NOW brand that launched in late 2025.

It was not clear if the study examined if consumers understand that MS NOW and NBC News are now separate. That said, it’s worth noting that MS NOW’s programming remained largely the same during the time the data was collected, so the overall effect on any confusion between the brands may have been limited. 

NPR News also came in at 44% trust in 2026, up from 42% in 2025, making it one of the few brands in the chart to show improvement year over year. NPR has faced significant funding challenges after the Trump Administration took moved that shuttered the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provided a significant chunk of NPR’s funding. The accompanying coverage of the changes may have also increased NPR’s brand awareness, though this was not examined in the study.

The brands listed largely focus on legacy media and don’t specially call out brands such as NewsNation, which is relatively newer to the scene, specific digital outlets such as Axios or partisan offerings such as Newsmax and OAN.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each had 43% trust scores in 2026. Both declined from 2025, when The New York Times stood at 47% and Wall Street Journal was at 46%.

CNN fell from 46% trust in 2025 to 40% in 2026, while CBS News dropped from 48% to 38%. USA Today declined from 44% to 39%, and Washington Post moved from 42% to 37%.

For U.S. audiences, CBS News lost significant trust points — 10 points — when compared to its “big three” counterparts ABC and NBC. 

Some of that shift could be attributed to well-publicized and highly controversial changes the network made after the Paramount-Skydance merger closed, including significant changes in management and reports of leadership meddling with news content emerged. 

FNC had one of the sharpest declines among the comparable brands, falling from 43% trust in 2025 to 33% in 2026. Its “don’t trust” score rose from 40% to 48%, the highest distrust level among the brands included in the 2026 chart.

Yahoo! News continued to hold the lowest-score on the 2026 chart, with 31% trust, down from 35% in 2025. Its “neither” score was 37%, the highest neutral score in the 2026 data, suggesting a large share of respondents remained undecided or ambivalent toward the brand.

MS NOW, which appeared as its own brand in the 2026 chart, had a 35% trust score, 29% neither score and 36% don’t trust score. However, because the brand was introduced officially in late 2025 and included separating its newsroom from NBC News, the data cannot be compared to last year’s NBC News or MSNBC figures.

The most significant declines among directly comparable brands came from CBS News and FNC, each down 10 percentage points from 2025. CNN fell 6 points, while BBC News, USA Today, Washington Post and Yahoo! News each declined by 5 points.

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ABC News, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each dropped 3 points. Local television news and local newspapers each declined modestly but continued to outperform national brands in the survey.

Distrust also increased for several major brands. CBS News saw its “don’t trust” score rise from 30% to 39%. FNC increased from 40% to 48%. BBC News moved from 22% to 26%, CNN from 36% to 38%, and Wall Street Journal from 25% to 27%.

The broader public trust trend in the attached data shows a longer-term weakening. Overall trust stood at 32% in 2015, rose to 38% in 2017 and then generally declined through 2022, when it reached 26%.

Trust recovered to 32% in both 2023 and 2024 before falling to 30% in 2025 and 25% in 2026, the lowest point in the data provided.

Overall public trust dropped 5 percentage points from 2025 to 2026 and 13 points from its 2017 high. Compared with 2015, trust was down 7 points by 2026.