Fox News is the most trusted national news channel. And it s not that close.

Transcription

1 Fox News is the most trusted national news channel. And it s not that close. Washington Post - Mar 9, 2015 Fox News Channel beats out CNN for America's most trusted cable or broadcast news coverage, and MSNBC lags far behind, even among Democrats, according to new polling done by Quinnipiac University. The poll found 29 percent of people say they trust Fox News' coverage the most, followed by 22 percent for CNN and 10 percent for NBC News and CBS News. Fox News' figures are unsurprising considering its ratings. The channel ended 2014 second only to ESPN in total viewers among all adsupported basic cable networks. Its "America's Newsroom," "The Five," "Special Report with Bret Baier" and "The O'Reilly Factor" were the most-watched shows in their time slots among all cable stations. Put simply: Fox News is a ratings juggernaut. Yes, FNC's numbers are boosted by the fact that 58 percent of Republicans trust it the most; Fox News also has the most trusted coverage among independents with 25 percent. While Fox News is bolstered by the right, MSNBC doesn't get the same support from the left. The poll found that more Democrats trust CNN (32 percent) and NBC News (15 percent) than MSNBC (14 percent, tied with CBS News). Here's the breakdown by political affiliation, gender, and age: (via Quinnipiac) Fox News' dominance puts its frequent complaints about the "mainstream media" into perspective. For millions of Americans, Fox News is the mainstream media.

2 Here s the Real Reason Fox Is More Trusted than Any Other News Network Medialite.com March 11, 2015 You can see and hear the quickie five-second advertisements now: You re watching the network more Americans trust for news than any other: Fox News Channel. Ok now I know this is virtually impossible for some of you to accomplish but, pretty please, put aside your hatred or love (and apparently there is no in-between) for Fox News for the remainder of this otherwise-benign, inside-baseball column. This is not about ideology or red vs. blue. Instead, this piece will explore why Fox wins the trust competition by a comfortable margin (outside of execution and offering an alternative) from a perspective we don t hear about often. First question before getting to that perspective: What is a major component for building trust? Answer: Time. Now CNN has 16 years more time on the air than Fox News, but that s not the kind of time being referred to. Instead, the focus here is on the amount of time its network talent (anchors, hosts, personalities, pundits) has been on the air, and the role that plays in Fox building trust with its viewers. The stories and narratives change every day, of course. But when looking at the other networks, and this includes those listed in the aforementioned Quinnapiac poll that includes the Big Three Networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), you know what doesn t plague Fox News? Turnover. Sure, some on-air folks leave from periodically, but none the network would consider indispensable. Major Garrett, for example, is a major talent as solid a White House Correspondent for CBS as he was for Fox, but not indispensable as Ed Henry is showing. Same goes for Alisyn Camerota, who is an exceptional morning host and is doing a fine job at CNN. But the staples of the network? They never leave and are just as loyal to the network as its audience is to them. Think about who s been with the network for over a decade (or even since its inception in 1996) from morning to closing time: Kilmeade, Doocy, Hemmer, MacCallum, Jon Scott, Shep Smith, Cavuto, Baier, Van Susteren, O Reilly, Megyn Kelly, Hannity. Throw in the pundits who are just as important and ubiquitous: Krauthammer, Juan Williams, Kirsten Powers, Brit Hume, Geraldo and it s the same deal Fox viewers trust what they re hearing because all of the aforementioned have been in their living rooms for so long. Now compare that to CBS, NBC, and ABC. The anchor chair with the exception of NBC until recently seemingly is always changing. The days of Cronkite, Mudd and Brinkley and the longevity of the position are over. ABC alone, for instance, has showcased five anchors in nine years for World News Tonight after Peter Jennings occupied the chair for 22 years prior. On the cable news side, MSNBC is MSNBC third place and on the verge of a leadership change once new NBC News Chairman Andy Lack gets his office in order. As for CNN, the network scored higher than the broadcast networks in terms of trust (22 percent to FNC s 29 percent) and still does some fine reporting at times (breaking the VA scandal last year, for example) when it doesn t go into all-in mode on you-know-what. But because it takes a somewhat-centrist approach, it therefore doesn t earn the one thing Fox owns more than any other network: Loyalty. One of the primary reasons Fox earns the trust marks it does is because of general distrust in the rest of the media. The whole ballgame has been a steep downhill slope since the good old days of 1974, when Gallup found an incredible three in four Americans trusted the media. That number is down almost 35 points now, with opinion journalism disguised as straight news sparking said mistrust. Agendas perceived or otherwise rule more than who, what, when, where, why and how. Despite being well out in front of CNN and MSNBC for well over a decade, Fox somehow manages to portray itself as the underdog via an Us vs. Them mentality. It s core audience seemingly feels obligated to march along in the fight. Instead of familiarity of the many longtime hosts breeding contempt, it breeds a bond that can be found only in a few other places: The Howard Stern Show (where listeners were so loyal to the program, they actually followed him from terrestrial radio to a pay model on satellite by the millions) and Jon Stewart s Daily Show, where it felt downright like a funeral (even Stewart noticed it) upon announcing his retirement from the show. Sometime very soon, Fox will tout this latest poll on its air in quick bumps/ads or on billboards surrounding its studios on 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan (or both). Trust is a product of familiarity and time. Fox executes well, yes. Fox offers an alternative, sure. But the one thing it has going for itself is one aspect rarely discussed: All the big players on the air simply don t leave, nor seem to be inclined to. Loyalty given. Loyalty returned. UPDATE Thurs., March 12, 1:00 p.m. ET: Fox is now running promos touting the most-trusted study findings:

3 Can both Fox News and CNN be the most trusted news network? What am I missing?

4 One in Every Ten Young Adults Calls Stewart, Colbert Most Trusted News Source Public Religion Research Institute July 29, 2015 When Jon Stewart tapes the final episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on August 6, he will have hosted the Comedy Central news parody show for 16 years. This longevity means Stewart was present in the lives of many young adults and some view him and his show as the most trusted news source. More than one in ten (11 percent) young adults (ages 18-29) say they trust The Daily Show or The Colbert Report the most to provide them with accurate information about politics and current events an amount nearly double that of Americans overall (6 percent). More young adults trust Stewart or Colbert s shows than public television (8 percent) or MSNBC (5 percent); the shows ranked fourth in trustworthiness behind CNN (24 percent), broadcast network news programs (19 percent), and Fox News (19 percent). Young adults are more likely than any other age group to place the most trust in Stewart or Colbert just 6 percent of Americans ages 30-49, four percent of year olds, and one percent of Americans 65 and older report turning to these programs for the most accurate news. So where will young adults turn now that both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are off the news circuit? They ll most likely tune into CNN, broadcast network news programs, and Fox News, news sources that scored high in dependability among young adults.

5 Study: Rush Limbaugh, Buzzfeed Among Least Trusted News Sources Millennials, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have been pitted against one another in study after study, but all three generations agree on at least one thing. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, the trio of age groups distrust the same four political news sources: the digital outlet BuzzFeed and radio shows the Glenn Beck Program, The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show. The study, which surveyed 3,000 people to examine how the political news consumption habits of Millennials varied from the two previous generations, also found that that three sources were trusted by Millennials, but distrusted among Gen Xers and Baby Boomers: The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, which recently went off the air, and Al Jazeera America. Pew discovered that 61% of younger Americans get political news from Facebook in a given week, while the majority (60%) of their older generational counterparts rely on local TV. Millennials defined as those born between 1981 and 1996 are also less familiar with many news sources, including 18 of the 36 sources Pew used, compared to older generations. BuzzFeed and Google News were the two sources millennials were more familiar with.

6 Why do you think Millennials don t trust Fox News as much as prior generations?