Commentary
What Partisans Chew On: The News Sources Favored By Republicans And Democrats
- by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 10, 2025
News audiences are split along clear party lines, judging by the latest Pew Research Media Tracker survey.
Among Republicans, 57% regularly get news from Fox News. In addition, 27% obtain it from ABC News, 24% from NBC News, 22% from CBS News and 22% from the Joe Rogan Experience. In addition, they are more likely to turn to Newsmax (15% vs. 1% for Democrats), The Daily Wire (12% vs. 2%) and Tucker Carlson Network (9% vs. 1%).
Democrats and voters who lean that way get their news from:
CNN--48%
NBC—47%)
ABC--46%
CBS—39%
MSNBC—33%
NPR—32%
The Associated Press—31%
PBS—31%
BBC News—30%
The New York Times—29%
None of this is surprising, but there is some unexpected crossover given the fact that both sides watch the major news networks.
On another front, 11% of Republicans utilize USA Today, versus 17% of Democrats. And 20% of Republicans watch CNN.
advertisement
advertisement
And, while it might seem contra-indicated, 16% of Democrats read the Wall Street Journal, compared to 12% of Republicans.
At the same time, 18% of Democrats also turn to Fox News.
Do people from both political parties trust the news?
“Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party are much more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents to both use and trust a number of major news sources,” the study notes. “These include the major TV networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), the cable news networks CNN and MSNBC, major public broadcasters PBS and NPR, and the legacy newspaper with the largest number of digital subscribers, The New York Times.
“Republicans, meanwhile, are much more likely to distrust than trust all of these sources,” Pew continue. “A smaller number of the sources we asked about are more heavily used and trusted by Republicans than Democrats, including Fox News, The Joe Rogan Experience, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, the Tucker Carlson Network and Breitbart.
An earlier report by Pew found that 53% of Republicans trust at least some of the information coming from national news organizations, up from 40% last year. However, 81% of Democrats and independents who follow the party trust national news.
Pew surveyed 9,482 Pew Research Center panelists from March 10-16, 2025.
Ray Schultz is the former editor of DM News, Chief Marketer, Direct, Circulation Management and other marketing titles.
It is a well-researched fact that the majority of major US media institutions are staffed by left-leaning people, often very left-leaning. The perspectives of most of those major media institutions clearly leans left as a result. It's also a fact that most people self-select for news sources that reinforce their personal perspective. It's often small things like word choices, source selection, and story placement. So, Democrats have many more friendly media options to choose from and self-distribute more widely. Conservatives have fewer choices among large, traditional outlets and so self-aggregate to fewer options. There is nothing surprising or sensational there, just math. Instead, the entrenched ideological distance between major media and the majority of Americans is the story, and also a big contributor to the general loss of confidence in traditional US media as new-media options grew.
This kind of comment pretends to be neutral but pushes a familiar narrative: that the left controls all the media and conservatives are just victims of a rigged system. YAWN. In reality, right-wing media is incredibly powerful; Fox News alone shapes the worldview of millions daily, and that’s before you even get to talk radio, Facebook echo chambers, or sites like Daily Wire. Media bias isn’t a left-wing monopoly, it’s a symptom of a fractured ecosystem where every side builds its own reality. Let’s stop pretending one side owns propaganda.
@Artie - Come on, that's not close to what I wrote. I didn't say or imply that the Left controls "All the media". Nor did I say or imply that there are not powerful right wing media sources. In fact, just the opposite. The individual power of the smaller number of right wing sources is in large part due to the fact that more than half of Americans are conservative and their attention is divided among fewer traditional media sources. That's the math part. I mistakingly thought readers here would get that without me spelling it out. Sorry. But please, comment on something I actually wrote.
Nice bait and switch, Brian, but the narrative you're pushing is clear even though you're attempting to apply a veneer of supposed objectivity. "The majority of major US media institutions are staffed by left-leaning people, often very left-leaning" is careful phrasing of the old & worn-out "liberal mainstream media" song and dance. And it's false.
Saying “most Americans are conservative” is a rhetorical trick used to claim moral or cultural majority. The reality: America is ideologically mixed, with shifting coalitions depending on the issue - ex: gun rights / reform, marijuana legalization, Medicare, etc. It’s more complex than your bite-sized bumper sticker statement. According to Gallup as of early 2024:
38% of Americans identify as conservative
31% as moderate
28% as liberal
Your "entrenched ideological distance" is not math, it's just one person's subjective interpretation of reality.