Voters Who Talk Politics the Most Trust Media the Most

Publication Date: 11/19/2025 5:00 AM CST

Voters Who Talk Politics the Most Trust Media the Most

Publication: 11/19/2025 5:00 AM CST

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Repeated events like the recent discovery of the BBC's Panorama edits of Donald Trump's speech have long made voters wary of news media in all its forms.
- The most trusted source, television, finds just 27% of voters calling it a Very Reliable source for national news.
- News websites fare slightly worse (25%), while newspapers (21%), friends and family (21%) and radio (20%) all hover around 1 in 5 voters saying they are Very Reliable.
There was a significant drop in trust for podcasts/streaming platforms (16% called it Very Reliable), as well as social media (15%).
- It is significant to note, however, that social media is the second most common way for voters to get national or local news, trailing only television.
Voters who talk politics Every Day or Nearly Every Day have radically different perceptions of the media than the average voter, and are far more trusting of all forms of media.
- For national news, 43% of those who talk politics Every Day or Nearly Every Day consider TV to be Very Reliable, and 44% say the same of news websites.
Still, the starkest differences come in relation to social media, as well as podcasts and streaming platforms.
- Forty-two percent (42%) of those who talk politics daily say social media is Very Reliable for national news (compared to 15% of all voters).
- Forty-three percent (43%) call podcasts and streaming platforms Very Reliable for national news (compared to 16% of all voters).
- Those who talk politics every day are also roughly twice as likely to use social media on a daily basis as other voters.
- They are also roughly three times as likely to listen to podcasts or streaming platforms on a daily basis as other voters.
Ratings for local news coverage fared slightly better, though the most trusted source, television, still has just 31% who call it Very Reliable.

This data is from a Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters conducted online by Scott Rasmussen, November 11-12, 2025 RMG Research, Inc., conducted the field work for the survey. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.