Trust in media is at an all-time low. According to Gallup's annual survey, only 28% of Americans say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in mass media, the lowest figure recorded since Gallup began tracking the question in 1972.
But low average trust masks significant variation. Some outlets earn that trust. Others do not. And the difference between them has nothing to do with political orientation.
This article identifies the most credible news sources based on the five criteria PressGrade uses to evaluate all media figures and outlets: factual accuracy, correction culture, source transparency, content integrity, and editorial independence.
What Makes a News Source Trustworthy
Before getting to specific outlets, it helps to be precise about what we mean by trustworthy.
A trustworthy news source is not one that you agree with. It is not one that makes you feel informed or validated. It is not one that covers the stories you think are important.
A trustworthy news source is one that gets its facts right, corrects its mistakes openly and promptly, shows its sources, keeps news and opinion clearly separated, and maintains independence from the people and organizations it covers.
These criteria are drawn from academic research into media credibility, including studies conducted by the Knight Foundation, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, and Pew Research Center. They have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with documented behavior.
Wire Services: The Gold Standard
The most consistently reliable news sources are the wire services, organizations whose primary function is to gather and distribute factual information to other news outlets.
The Associated Press scores 82 on PressGrade, placing it firmly in the High Trust tier. AP has a documented commitment to factual accuracy that predates the current media environment by more than a century. Its fact-checking infrastructure is extensive, its correction culture is consistent, and its editorial independence from political and commercial interests is among the strongest of any major news organization.
Reuters scores 75, also in the High Trust tier. Like AP, Reuters operates as a global news-gathering organization with rigorous sourcing standards and a consistent record of accurate reporting across political, economic, and international beats.
Both organizations are widely used as sourcing references by other news outlets, which is itself a measure of credibility. When journalists at other organizations need to verify a claim, AP and Reuters are typically the first places they look.
Read our full reliability assessments for AP News and Reuters.
Digital Outlets With High Credibility
Beyond the wire services, several digital news organizations have established strong credibility track records.
The Dispatch, a conservative-leaning but rigorously fact-based outlet, scores 83 on PressGrade, the highest score among outlets we have evaluated. Founded by journalists who left mainstream conservative media over concerns about editorial standards, The Dispatch has built a reputation for factual rigor and willingness to challenge its own audience's assumptions. It clearly labels opinion content as opinion and maintains a strong correction culture.
ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, scores in the high trust range for its investigative work. Its sourcing standards are strong, its corrections policy is transparent, and its funding model, primarily foundation grants and reader donations rather than advertising, reduces the commercial pressures that often compromise editorial independence.
Where Network News Stands
The major television news networks present a more complicated picture.
PBS NewsHour scores consistently well on factual accuracy and source transparency. Its public funding model and nonprofit structure insulate it from some of the commercial pressures that affect commercial networks, and its correction culture is among the strongest on television.
The major commercial networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, score in the moderate range overall, with significant variation between their news divisions and their opinion and commentary programming. Their straight news reporting generally meets basic journalistic standards. Their opinion programming, where it exists, is not always clearly labeled as such.
Cable news, as discussed elsewhere on this site, scores significantly lower. CNN scores 62, MSNBC scores 59, and Fox News scores 43. All three are caught in varying degrees in the ratings trap, optimizing for engagement over accuracy.
Print and Digital News
Among major print and digital news organizations, the picture is similarly varied.
The New York Times scores 62 on PressGrade. Its factual accuracy on hard news reporting is generally strong, and its correction culture is more robust than most. However, its content integrity score is affected by a pattern of blending news and opinion that is not always clearly labeled, and its editorial independence score reflects concerns about audience capture.
The Washington Post scores 48. Similar issues affect its content integrity score, along with documented concerns about the influence of its ownership structure on coverage decisions.
The Wall Street Journal presents an interesting split. Its news division scores significantly higher on credibility metrics than its opinion section. Treating them as separate products, as many media critics recommend, is a reasonable approach.
Building a Trustworthy Media Diet
Based on credibility scores and research into media literacy, here is a practical framework for building a more reliable information diet.
Start with wire services for breaking news. AP and Reuters provide the factual foundation that most other reporting builds on. Reading wire service reporting directly, rather than through the filter of cable news or social media, gives you access to the underlying facts before they have been interpreted and framed by partisan outlets.
Add one or two outlets that score well on editorial independence and factual accuracy. Based on PressGrade scores, The Dispatch, ProPublica, and PBS NewsHour represent strong options across different parts of the political spectrum.
Use cable news and social media as an alert system, not an information source. They are useful for knowing that something is happening. They are not reliable for understanding what is actually happening and why.
Search any outlet or media figure on PressGrade to see how they score on all five credibility criteria before adding them to your regular reading.