Trust in journalism just crashed harder than anyone predicted. Gallup’s September 2025 numbers show barely 28% of Americans believe newspapers, TV, and radio tell them the truth. The absolute worst measurement they’ve recorded in fifty years of tracking this. What’s wild is how differently Democrats and Republicans see the exact same news organizations. Democrats show 51% trust while Republicans dropped to 8%, which means they’re basically consuming news from separate realities now. Younger Americans trust media way less than older folks too, with adults over sixty-five showing 43% confidence compared to under 28% for anyone younger.
So which left wing news sources actually deserve your clicks when you’re trying to figure out what’s real? The outlets ranked here built their credibility through journalism that brought down corrupt officials, exposed corporate crimes that companies spent millions trying to hide, and gave platforms to people whose stories get buried by mainstream coverage. You need accurate sources for debates about climate legislation, social justice reforms, economic policy, not because it feels good to stay informed, but because votes cast without real information are basically just guesses about who should run the country.
Top 7 Liberal News Outlets You Can Trust
1. MSNBC
MSNBC just went through the biggest shake-up in cable news history. The network switches to MS NOW on November 15, 2025, cutting its thirty-year connection to NBC News completely as Comcast spins everything into a new company they’re calling Versant. This isn’t some marketing gimmick. MS NOW built its own newsroom from scratch, partnered with Sky News to cover international stories, and stopped borrowing NBC’s reporters and infrastructure entirely. Rachel Maddow only hosts Monday nights now after finishing her special five-night run covering Trump’s first hundred days, which wrapped in May.
Cable news viewership dropped off a cliff after the election for every network, but MS NOW came back strong by doing exactly what progressive viewers wanted: resistance coverage that doesn’t pretend Trump’s second term is normal politics. The network’s typical viewer is around seventy years old, which explains their panic about reaching younger audiences who get news from TikTok creators they’ve never heard of rather than cable channels their parents watch. MS NOW’s evening shows still bring serious investigative reporting and political analysis that calls out right-wing lies while pushing progressive causes, even though cable news as a business model looks increasingly doomed when streaming eats everything.
2. CNN
CNN keeps massive audience reach despite bleeding viewers all through 2025. Their numbers hit historic lows during summer that genuinely scared executives about whether the network’s strategy makes any sense anymore. The partisan trust split tells you everything about media fragmentation. Democrats trust CNN while Republicans don’t, creating an eighty-point gap where the same outlet looks totally different depending on your voter registration. CNN’s real advantage is their global reporting network that puts journalists on the ground faster than competitors when breaking news explodes anywhere on Earth. About half of Americans still call CNN trustworthy according to polls from 2025, and Democrats overwhelmingly pick it over Fox News or Newsmax when choosing where to watch.
The network allows access to their digital content without paywalls, which is more important than people may understand as quality journalism is continually being placed behind the paywall of subscription and taking away access from those who cannot afford it. CNN’s reporters are attempting to remain professional while doing journalism community and politics, social movements, international conflict of the time, but because of fighting behind the scenes about the ideological positioning of the network, there are awkward moments where anchors seem a bit confused as to whether they are doing straight journalism or left-leaning journalism. No doubt the network is wrestling with existential questions of identity and business model that their executives have not worked out yet.
3. The New York Times
The Times is clearly the unrivalled leader in American journalism with a record that no one else in American journalism can even come close to. The Times has already won 135 Pulitzer Prizes in total, an all-time record for any news organization – anywhere – in the world. Political scientists who study media bias often rank The Times as left of centre ideologically, which is probably no surprise to anyone who peruses the editorial pages, or even just considers which stories often make it to the homepage. The Times’ typical paid subscriber is older, wealthier, more educated, and more liberal than average Americans, although The Times also continuously seeks to attract readers who are less affluent and who do not live on the coasts.
Monthly traffic passes 362 million visitors, which means the Times basically decides which stories matter nationally and frames how Americans think about complicated subjects. Their investigative journalism actually changes policies and topples powerful people, making them required reading if you consider yourself an informed progressive voter. The reporting quality separates them from content mills cranking out hot takes. Times journalists dig into complex topics with depth and analytical thinking that respects readers enough to give them substance. Whether you’re reading Supreme Court analysis, international conflict coverage, or cultural trend pieces, the Times mixes storytelling skill with fact-checking rigor that sets standards everyone chases but rarely matches.
4. The Washington Post
Historically, the Post earned its reputation as Washington’s indispensable political paper during Watergate and when it pursued investigations to hold government power accountable. Nonetheless, Jeff Bezos owning it presents challenges that progressive audiences deal with all the time. Since its founding in 1877 with its headquarters where policy decisions happen, the Post excels at political coverage and investigative reporting that identifies corrupt government power regardless of party affiliation. Within this tension, critics increasingly claim just recently added more conservative columnists and Bezos owning it represent a slant to the right that goes against the Post’s history as a progressive institution.
These claims against the Post are not paranoid conspiracy theories. They are legitimate questions about the corrupting influence of a billionaire ownership on journalistic independence, even in newsrooms with a storied legacy. Simply put, the Post has contributed and continues to contribute solid reporting, covering politics, culture, social issues, and if you are following American governance, the Post should be regularly consumed. Its digital footprint carries millions of monthly visitors, ensuring they are a predominant source of information readers can rely on to help shape the discourse around politics day in and day out, regardless of perpetual disputes over how the Post may be perceived going forward. At this point, it truly appears that the Post’s identity is in limbo, caught somewhere between its history as a progressive institution. Bezos really believes it should become for reasons only known to Bezos and his inner circle.
5. NPR (National Public Radio)
NPR offers public broadcasting that values how your brain works rather than expecting you to listen to things presented like you’re a child who needs everything dumbed down to third grade vocabulary. Their programming delves into stories with depth that commercial outlets can’t match, because they’re not chasing ratings every quarter hour. Researchers who study media bias place is NPR as slightly to the left of centre, but with good reason, because they are these trustworthy outposts of factual representation and ethical journalism that, even if someone isn’t on the same course as the editorial interpretation of the “facts,” they respected their objective reporting. With nearly 83 million monthly people listening, provided by radio, podcast, and in-digital formats, this provides a platform for a sizeable audience that seeks findings opposed to screaming matches presented by partisan talking heads.
Democrats trust NPR about 65 points more than Republicans do, which exemplifies how Americans are living in two entirely different universes of information based on political identity. NPR, as an organization that is supported by public funding and listener donations, provide them both independence and the ability to reject any burden to profit from their work in the way commercial outlets sacrificed to the corporate consolidation of news as a for-profit service ten plus years ago. When you’re listening in your car or catching a podcast at a later time instead of traditional cable coverage, it is just as thoughtful, and it handles current events with complexity and nuance in the same way life works. It acknowledges that current events don’t fit in with two simple stories that 30-seconds of cable news programming provides.
6. The Guardian
The Guardian brings British progressive journalism’s international lens to American politics in ways domestic outlets can’t replicate because they’re stuck inside American perspectives. Founded over a century ago, they broke massive investigations including phone hacking scandals destroying powerful media executives and Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations permanently changing global privacy debates. The paper openly admits its liberal editorial stance instead of pretending some impossible objectivity exists, yet maintains tough fact-based reporting separating news coverage from opinion writing. With strong social media reach, the Guardian attracts millions globally seeking progressive analysis on climate change, social justice movements, international politics.
Americans increasingly read the Guardian for U.S. news coverage filtered through international perspectives highlighting how the rest of the world views our politics and policies. Which often proves way more revealing than domestic coverage stuck in American exceptionalism narratives. Their commitment to journalism without paywalls makes quality progressive reporting accessible globally instead of hiding it behind subscription fees excluding readers who can’t afford premium access. Reading the Guardian regularly exposes American progressives to viewpoints and stories never appearing in domestic media, broadening understanding of how interconnected global politics actually works beyond nationalist rhetoric politicians sell.
7. Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! occupies a niche in the media landscape that no one else touches allowing the perspectives of people that mainstream media deliberately leave out, since those perspectives interfere with superficial stories about the workings of power. Amy Goodman and Juan González host this hour-long daily program broadcasts on more than 1,400 stations across the globe, serving audiences that commercial networks deem irrelevant or financially a burden to serve. Founded in 1996, Democracy Now! maintains editorial independence from corporate funding, advertising money or government support, meaning no person or organization can purchase any influence on coverage decisions or kill stories that might be harmful to funders.
The show focuses relentlessly on social movements, human rights fights, corporate power challenges through investigative journalism and extended interviews providing context twenty-four-hour cable news cycles destroy. Some critics question aspects of their international coverage, particularly regarding certain conflicts where their framing differs from mainstream narratives people accept as obvious truth. Despite those debates, Democracy Now! stays trusted by progressives wanting alternative perspectives centring ordinary people’s lived experiences rather than elite pundits’ detached analysis from comfortable studios. Their streaming video, audio, text formats let millions access content on their own schedules, creating informed activist communities using this journalism to fuel organizing work that actually shifts policies. Democracy Now! proves independent media survives without corporate backing when serving audiences valuing truth over comfortable lies protecting powerful interests from accountability.
For More Resources
Media trust crashed to historic lows throughout 2025, making it tougher than ever separating reliable journalism from propaganda dressed up as news reporting. These seven most liberal news source options earned reputations through investigative work exposing injustice, fact-based reporting respecting truth over partisan spin, amplification of marginalized voices deserving platforms denied by mainstream coverage. Your media consumption habits genuinely matter. Consuming multiple quality liberal news sites helps you spot patterns, identify blind spots, develop informed perspectives that shallow engagement never provides when you’re just scrolling headlines.
Cable networks like MSNBC and CNN offer immediate breaking coverage, prestigious papers including the Times and Post deliver investigative depth, NPR provides thoughtful public broadcasting, the Guardian contributes international perspectives, Democracy Now! centers voices mainstream media excludes systematically. Want exploring even more progressive media voices shaping current political conversations and movements? Check out FeedSpot’s comprehensive directories featuring liberal political podcasts, liberal political blogs, liberal political blogs in the US, liberal political Twitter influencers, and liberal magazines with extensive rankings helping you discover additional progressive voices worth following closely.