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Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃🌽
In today’s email:
- Featured story: Trump’s ongoing tensions with journalists
- New from Pew Research Center: More Americans prefer to watch the news than read or listen to it
- In other news: Fox News enlists Palantir to build AI tools for the newsroom
- Looking ahead: Local TV news station owner Sinclair eyes merger with Scripps
- Chart of the week: Older adults prefer watching the news; younger adults more likely to prefer reading it
🔥 Featured story
President Donald Trump’s interactions with the news media have made headlines in a few different ways this week. He insulted a Bloomberg News reporter who asked about the Jeffrey Epstein files. He also scolded an ABC News reporter who asked about the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a joint news conference with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Meanwhile, according to a report by The Guardian, the White House has discussed the prospect of allies at Paramount Skydance firing CNN hosts Trump dislikes if the company were to acquire CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
Most Americans (64%) say Trump has a bad relationship with the U.S. news media, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in early 2025. Republicans and Democrats have similar views on the state of the relationship, although they differ sharply about who is to blame.
🚨 New from Pew Research Center
More Americans prefer to get their news by watching it (44%) than reading (37%) or listening (19%) to it, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data. These numbers are nearly unchanged from 2018, the last time we asked this question.
Another analysis from the same survey examines the platforms TV news consumers use to get that news. A majority (57%) of U.S. adults who get news from TV say it mostly comes from cable, satellite or broadcast television, while 34% say it comes mainly from streaming services.
📌 In other news
- Fox News enlists Palantir to build AI tools for the newsroom
- Trump defends Tucker Carlson following interview with White nationalist Nick Fuentes
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting settles with NPR, agreeing to restore funding for satellite infrastructure
- Commission overseeing Alabama Public Television votes to continue paying its contract with PBS
- How a magazine editor investigated a possible AI scammer
- Florida nonprofit outlet’s reporters accuse editor of secretly using AI to edit stories
- A look at the EU-funded media project making short-form video journalism for Gen Z
📅 Looking ahead
Local TV giant Sinclair announced that it is engaged in merger discussions with E.W. Scripps, a smaller owner of local TV stations. This comes after the company disclosed an acquisition of Scripps shares in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
TV is still among the most common sources of local news for U.S. adults, but fewer Americans are getting news that way, according to a 2024 Center study. When asked about how frequently they get local news from various sources, 64% of Americans said they often or sometimes get local news from TV news stations, down from 70% in 2018. And 32% said in 2024 that they prefer TV over any other platform as a way to get local news and information, a decline from 41% six years prior.
📊 Chart of the week
This week’s chart comes from a new Center analysis looking at how U.S. adults prefer to get their news – whether by watching it, reading it or listening to it.
The most common way that Americans prefer to get their news is by watching it: 44% of U.S. adults say this. But there are differences by age, with those ages 65 and older especially likely prefer to watch their news (57%). Among adults under 30, the largest share prefers to get news by reading it (45%), while 31% say they prefer watching it and 23% prefer listening to it.
👋 That’s all for this week.
The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Emily Tomasik, Joanne Haner, and Sawyer Reed. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by David Kent.
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