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BBC most trusted TV newsbrand in US with Fox News in second place, new analysis reveals

By Sam Forsdick

The BBC has been ranked the most trusted TV newsbrand among American viewers, beating CNN and Fox News, according to new analysis.

The data is based on a 2018 customer loyalty and engagement index and shows 90 per cent of more than 4,000 American viewers rated the BBC their most trusted newsbrand.

Fox News was the most trusted US News channel at 87 per cent , according to the study created for Research Intelligencer by Brand Keys.

PBS, Bloomberg and MSNBC make up the rest of the top five.

Fox was also the most watched news network during the month of July with 2.4m prime-time viewers, marking 199 consecutive months at the top, according to the group.

Fox News’ Hannity programme was also the most watched news show with 3.4m total viewers across the same month, it said.

MSNBC averaged 1.66m prime-time viewers while CNN, which US president Donald Trump often refers to as “fake news”, had 891,000.

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Trump was also included as a “brand” in the survey to see how trusted the president was after he had “assailed news (of all varieties) as ‘fake news’ and more recently ‘the enemy of the people,’” according to Brand Keys president Robert Passikoff.

Trump, whose attacks on the media were criticised by UN experts last week, was trusted by only 29 per cent of the people questioned, leaving him bottom in terms of most trusted.

A 2017 poll commissioned by the BBC found the broadcaster was consistently ranked top in terms of trust, impartiality and accuracy. The survey was based on 900 Britons aged 15 and over who  “follow news” and were asked to rank newsbrands out of ten.

It found that 57 per cent of respondents were “most likely to turn to” the BBC for news they could “trust the most”.

The poll results follow a Cision State of the media report which found a majority of journalists globally (71 per cent) believe the public has lost trust in in the media.

Picture: Reuters/Neil Hall

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