While
television news viewership has fallen off in recent
years, credibility ratings for the major TV news outlets
have remained relatively stable. As was the case in 1998
and 1996, CNN is rated the most believable TV
news source. Roughly four-in-ten Americans who are able
to rate it (39%) say they can believe all or most of
what they see and hear on CNN.
The three major broadcast networks are
rated about equally in terms of believability: Roughly
three-in-ten say they believe most of what they see on
ABC, NBC and CBS. Ratings for the networks are basically
unchanged from 1998 and 1996. The network news magazines
are rated slightly better than the networks themselves.
One-third (34%) give 60 Minutes a high rating for
believability, and 32% give the same high rating to
NBC's Dateline. The ratings of local TV are similar to
the networks, with 33% saying they can believe all or
most of what they see on their local newscasts.
Fewer Americans are able to rate the
newer all news cable channels, MSNBC and the Fox News
Channel. Nonetheless, among those able to rate them,
they rank just slightly below the broadcast networks.
Less than three-in-ten (28%) give MSNBC high marks for
believability; 26% give the Fox News Channel a high
rating. C-SPAN received high believability ratings from
33% of those able to rate it.
Similarly, public broadcasting outlets
are less well-known than the large commercial networks,
but their credibility ratings are comparable among those
who can rate them. Ratings for National Public Radio
have improved somewhat since 1998. One-quarter give NPR
the highest rating for believability, compared to 19%
two years ago. Roughly one-in-five (21%) rate NPR's All
Things Considered as highly believable. The NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer is rated highly by roughly one-quarter
of the public -- 24% say they can believe all or most of
what they hear on this show.
Wall
Street Journal Stands Out
Compared to television news outlets,
print sources are generally seen as less believable,
with one exception. The Wall Street Journal is viewed as
the most highly credible news source among all the
traditional outlets included in the poll. Among those
able to rate, fully 41% say they can believe all or most
of what they read in the Wall Street Journal.
Time Magazine comes in a distant
second on the list of print sources included in the
poll. Three-in-ten (29%) give Time a high rating for
believability. Newsweek gets a high rating from 24%.
One-in-four Americans give their local
daily newspaper high marks for believability. This is
down somewhat from 29% in 1998. USA Today is highly
rated by 23%, unchanged from two years ago.
Ratings for the Associated Press have
risen moderately in recent years. Today 21% of those
able to rate the wire service give it high marks for
believability, up from 18% in 1998 and 16% in 1996.
Entertainment and tabloid outlets such
as People and the National Enquirer receive the lowest
ratings overall. Only 10% of those able to rate People
say they can believe all or most of what they read in
the magazine. Even fewer (4%) give high ratings to the
Enquirer.
Online
Sites Beat Parent Organizations
This year, for the first time, the
Center asked online users to rate the believability of
several popular Internet news sites.(1)Interestingly,
ratings for the online sites of the major national news
organizations are substantially higher than ratings for
the news organizations themselves.
[(1) Based on a
separate survey of 308 Internet users conducted June
1-6, 2000.]
For example, among online users who
could rate, fully 54% give CNN.com a high believability
rating, while only 40% give the same rating to CNN. With
ABC News, 44% of online users rate the network's website
highly believable, compared with 29% who give the same
rating to the organization itself.
A similar pattern can be seen for NBC
News vs. MSNBC.com, CBS News vs. CBSNews.com, USA Today
vs. USAToday.com., and the Fox News Channel vs.
FoxNews.com. In each case, online users give the website
a higher rating than the parent news organization. The
New York Times' website is rated highly by 42% of online
users, but the newspaper itself was not rated on
credibility.
Believability ratings for
Internet-only sites vary widely. The two best-known
sites receive the highest ratings: Roughly three-in-ten
online users say they can believe all or most of what
they read on Yahoo (29%) and Netscape (30%). AOL's News
Channel gets a high rating from 23% of the online users
able to rate it.
Less
well-known are the popular search engines Lycos.com, Go
Network and About.com Among those able to rate them,
just under one-in-five give Lycos and Go Network high
believability ratings. About.com received high marks
from 13% of online users.
The poll includes two
technology-oriented news sites -- CNET.com and ZDNet.com.
Each received high believability ratings from roughly
one-quarter of users familiar with them.
Two online magazines, Salon and Slate,
received the lowest marks overall. Fewer than
one-in-five online users were able to rate these sites.
Salon received high ratings for credibility from 12% of
those who rated it, while Slate got high marks from only
4%.
Reports by the Pew
Research Center
Related Links:
The
PEW Research Center
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