☀️ Happy Thursday! The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information. Sign up here!
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Newsmax files antitrust lawsuit against Fox News
- New from Pew Research Center: Many who generally distrust national news organizations still say they trust certain outlets
- In other news: C-SPAN to be carried on YouTube, Hulu
- Looking ahead: Paramount to purchase Bari Weiss’ Free Press and give her top editorial job at CBS News
- Chart of the week: How Republican “trusters” and “distrusters” of national media view specific news sources
🔥 Featured story
Newsmax is suing Fox News, alleging that the network is monopolizing conservative TV audiences and violating antitrust laws. The lawsuit claims that Fox News is trying to suppress its fellow right-leaning competitors, including Newsmax, through “intimidation tactics” and restrictive agreements with distributors.
A March Pew Research Center survey found that 57% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents regularly get news from Fox News – the largest share out of any of the 30 news sources studied in the survey. By comparison, 15% of Republicans regularly get news from Newsmax.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
Americans who generally trust national news organizations are more likely than those who distrust them to say they trust most of 30 specific news sources we asked about in a recent survey. But several news sources with right-leaning audiences are exceptions to this pattern, according to a new Center analysis that combines these general and specific measures of trust in the media.
📌 In other news
- C-SPAN reaches deal to be carried on YouTube TV and Hulu’s live television feed
- Semafor announces expansion of live journalism and events operations
- Publishers retract stories after discovering fake AI-fueled journalist hoax
- Trump’s new “No Tax on Tips” policy will apply to influencers
- Major social media platforms in China begin rolling out labels for AI-generated content
- Vogue chooses Chloe Malle as new editor, replacing Anna Wintour
- The New York Times offering bundled subscriptions with The Economist
- A look at Radio Garden, a free website that allows users to stream radio stations from around the world
- How should the U.S. media cover the president’s health?
📅 Looking ahead
Paramount is reportedly nearing a deal with former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss to purchase her news outlet, The Free Press, and give her a top editorial position at CBS News. Weiss left the Times in 2020 and started her own media venture in response to what she described as a lack of ideological diversity.
Earlier this summer, Paramount’s merger with Skydance was approved by the FCC after the company agreed to several conditions, including the addition of an ombudsman to police media bias and a review of content to ensure a diversity of viewpoints from across the ideological spectrum. Paramount had previously settled a lawsuit with President Donald Trump for $16 million over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview on 60 Minutes.
Prior to the merger, there was a large partisan gap among Americans who trust CBS News as a source of news and information, according to a March 2025 Pew Research Center survey. Over half of Democrats (56%) say they trust CBS News, compared with 23% of Republicans.
📊 Chart of the week
Our chart this week comes from a recent Center analysis of how broad trust – or a lack thereof – in information from national news organizations is linked with trust in 30 specific news sources. In general, Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to trust the information they get from national news organizations. But Republicans who do trust national media view specific news sources differently than Republicans who don’t trust national media.
For instance, Republican “distrusters” are more likely than Republican “trusters” to say they trust several news sources with right-leaning audiences, including The Joe Rogan Experience, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, Tucker Carlson Network and Breitbart.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang, Emily Tomasik and Joanne Haner. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by David Kent.
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