Fox News Is Most - and Least - Trusted Source for News: Poll

The Fox News Channel is by far the most-trusted television news source in the country.

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It's also the least trusted.

The findings are courtesy of an annual study from Public Policy Polling, which indicated that 34 percent of Americans identify Fox News as the outlet they trust most.

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The designation bestowed on Fox News, largely considered a more conservative news source, came despite the fact that 42 percent of those polled were Democrats compared with 33 percent who were Republicans. The remaining 25 percent were "independent/other."

The survey polled 800 registered voters between Jan. 31-Feb. 3. Fifty-one percent of those polled voted for President Barack Obama in the November presidential election and 43 percent voted for Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

In a distant second place was PBS, which 13 percent named as their most trusted source of TV news.

ABC was next at 11 percent, followed by CNN (12 percent), MSNBC (8 percent), "someone else/not sure" (7 percent), CBS (6 percent) and NBC (5 percent).

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Comedy Central also was thrown into the mix, and it is as trusted a news source as NBC.

Asked for the news source they trust least, 39 percent named Fox News. MSNBC was next at 14 percent, followed by CNN (13 percent), Comedy Central (12 percent), "someone else/not sure" (9 percent), ABC and CBS (tied at 5 percent), NBC (3 percent) and PBS (1 percent).

"We continue to find that Democrats trust most TV news sources other than Fox, while Republicans don't trust anything except Fox," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

Broken down by party affiliation, Democrats trust PBS the most, followed by NBC then MSNBC. Republicans trust Fox News the most, followed by PBS and NBC, though the latter two pale in comparison to Fox News.

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The poll was getting a fair amount of play Wednesday primarily from the liberal media, which focused on a downward trend in FNC's trustworthiness. 

The headline at liberal ThinkProgress.com, for example, read: "Five Reasons Why Fewer People Trust Fox News Than Ever Before." The article noted that the poll indicates that 41 percent have at least basic trust in the network, which is down from 49 percent four years ago.

At PoliticusUSA.com, which sports the motto "real liberal politics," the headline read: "Real Trouble at Fox News as Viewer Trust Falls to an All Time Low."

Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com