Between major networks ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, NBC News and CNN, Fox is the only network — the only one — more people say they trust than distrust, according to a recent survey by Public Policy Polling.

Forty-nine percent say they trust it, while 37 percent don’t.

As you might have guessed, numbers were split along political lines. Seventy-four percent of Republicans trust Fox News, but no more than 23 percent of them trust any of the other four networks.

Again unsurprisingly, Democrats were the opposite: Only 30 percent said they trusted Fox while a majority supported the other four networks.
Independents apparently hate everything — a majority of those voters distrust all five news networks.

These numbers suggest a major shift in what people want from their morning news. Decades ago, Walter Cronkite was renowned as the nation’s most trusted newsman for his neutrality and poise in covering topics of interest to both Democrats and Republicans.

It’s telling that the TV home of some of the nation’s most polarizing figures is also the one in which most viewers place their trust — it illustrates that today’s viewers trust their networks of choice precisely for their lack of neutrality.

This says something about today’s viewers, assuredly. But more so, it says something about what modern news has become.

It’s easier, ostensibly, to listen to someone you agree with than someone you don’t. It seems to be for this reason that viewers so strongly support one news channel over another: they want to have their values reaffirmed daily by the network talking heads.

Networks are well aware of this trend, and use it to their advantage. CNN bloviates for days about the triumph that was Obama’s State of the Union address while Fox News calls it a failure in every sense of the word. Viewers of each network nod in smug agreement — but are they truly being informed?

The Ann Coulters and Glenn Becks and Bill O’Reillys and Nancy Graces of the world thrive on our disunity. They are in the business of polarizing the country and broadcast ideas fueled by controversy and political dissension.

This is not the purpose of news. News shouldn’t reinforce your biases. It should provide a comprehensive, fair and — forgive me — balanced account of events and issues.

At some point news networks drifted away from educating and informing viewers, and began to seek only to entertain us and drive us further apart.

And that’s when they lost our trust.

Zach trusts no one — not even himself. Reach his super-high-security email inbox at zfowle@asu.edu