June 10, 2026— Only two of eleven of the most well known national news organizations have a majority of Americans who have a great deal or fair amount of trust in them, according to a new survey conducted by YouGov for the Center for Integrity in News Reporting. However, the survey also found greater trust among these 11 national news organizations individually than estimates of public trust in the mass media in general. The survey also highlights a reason for the lack of trust, as only 12% on average say they have 'a great deal of trust' that these news outlets present facts without intentionally omitting important information that could change the meaning or context. It also suggests a possible way to increase trust, with the public saying only 13% of these news organizations on average always make a clear distinction between news and opinion. "For readers and viewers to trust news reporting, they need to understand what a news organization stands for. Adopting a concise statement of core journalistic values and making it transparent is a relatively inexpensive step that a number of news organizations have already taken and one that can help rebuild trust, transparency, and accountability," according to Rufus Friday, Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting. The survey, conducted by YouGov between February 16 - 26, 2026, finds that Americans are about evenly divided in their preference for reporting that takes a more neutral approach (reporting the statements of public officials and others and let the news consumer decide what they believe to be the truth- 53% of American say this) and a more active style of reporting that tells news consumers about what news organizations consider the accuracy or inaccuracy of statements directly (47%). Share of Americans who say they prefer media that …

The Center for Integrity in News Reporting (CFINR) has named Terry Tang, executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, to its board of trustees . Tang was appointed executive editor of the Times in 2024, becoming the first woman to hold the top editorial post in the paper's 144-year history. She oversees both the newsroom and the opinion section of one of the country's largest daily newspapers. Her arrival on the CFINR board comes weeks after the Los Angeles Times received the Center's inaugural $25,000 Investigative Reporting award for "LA Firestorms: Uncovering How the Government Failed the Public" — a sustained investigation into the public-sector response to the January 2025 firestorms. The reporting team drew on dispatch logs, public records, witness accounts, radio traffic, and independent soil testing to establish a documented account of how governments at multiple levels prepared for, responded to, and recovered from the disaster. Among the investigation's findings: that the Los Angeles Fire Department chose not to deploy roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines despite hurricane-force wind warnings, a decision that contributed to the ouster of the LAFD chief; and that an independent Times-led soil-testing effort found hazardous heavy metals on properties FEMA had declined to retest, prompting the EPA to reverse course nearly a year after the fires. Before joining the Times in 2019, Tang held multiple editing roles at The New York Times, including deputy editorial page editor and opinion editor. Earlier in her career she was an editorial writer and columnist at the Seattle Times and a reporter at the Seattle Weekly. Tang holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale, a J.D. from NYU School of Law, and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard. "Terry Tang is exactly the kind of trustee CFINR needs," said Walter E. Hussman Jr., founder of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting. "She has spent her career at some of the most respected newsrooms in the country, and she uniquely understands what it takes to produce reporting that is impartial, objective, and fair. Having Terry on this board will strengthen everything we are focused on at the Center." CFINR was founded by Hussman, the chairman of WEHCO Media and a veteran newspaper publisher and media executive, to address what Gallup polling identifies as a measurable collapse in American public trust in mass media, which has fallen from roughly 70 percent in the 1970s to 28 percent today. The Center's annual awards program, which drew 397 entries from at least 35 states this year, recognizes reporting that is impartial, objective, and fair. Beginning in 2027, the program will be renamed the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Impartial, Objective News Reporting. More information about CFINR and its trustees is available at www.cfinr.org .