Poll: Fox the most trusted name in news

Most Americans trust Fox News over other major U.S. news networks, a new survey finds.

Forty-nine percent of survey respondents said they trust Fox News, followed by CNN, NBC News, CBS News and ABCNews, respectively, according to Public Policy Polling.

"Predictably there is a large party split on this with 74% of Republicans but only 30% of Democrats saying they trust the right leaning network," the polling firm says.

"The major networks all have the majority trust of Democrats but less than 20% from Republicans," Public Policy Polling adds. "NBC, perhaps because of the ideological bent of MSNBC, does the best among Democrats at 62%. Overall 35% of voters trust it to 44% who do not. CBS does the worst among Republicans, with 69% distrusting it. A plurality of independents express distrust of all five outlets we tested."

I'm not surprised by this. I took a telecommunications course in college and recall a study that determined Fox was the most balanced of these networks in delivering news during the 2004 presidential campaign season.

Personally, I prefer to stay away from televised networks, because I think they're all biased. I do watch CNN's Headline News in the morning to brush up on the day's big news, although the show clearly leans left.

This may sound hypocritical coming from a journalist, but why do Americans need someone to tell us or analyze news? Why can't we watch the speech, read the report and find the facts ourselves? That's my advice: Seek the information on your own. Don't trust anybody but yourself.