A new Pew report finds that Republicans and Democrats place their trust in two nearly inverse news media environments.  

Overall, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents view many heavily relied on news sources across a range of platforms as untrustworthy. 

At the same time, Democrats and independents who lean Democratic see most of those news sources as credible and rely on them to a far greater degree.

These media diets are even more pronounced between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. Plus, the partisan polarization and trust of media sources have widened in the past five years. 

A comparison to a similar study by Pew in 2014 finds that Republicans have grown increasingly alienated from most of the more established sources, while Democrats’ confidence in them remains stable, and in some cases, has strengthened.

Essentially the political media environment is now CNN vs Fox.

In the Republican media diet, one outlet towers above all others: Fox News. Pew reports it would be hard to overstate its connection as a trusted go-to source of political news for Republicans.

About two-thirds (65%) of Republicans and Republican leaners say they trust Fox News as a source. Additionally, 60% say they got political or election news there in the past week.

Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, CNN (67%) is about as trusted a source of information as Fox News is among Republicans. 

CNN is also Democrats’ most commonly turned to source for political and election news, with about half (53%) saying they got news there in the past week.

Enjoy the ride and plan accordingly.