Oh, my. Liberal heads are exploding over this one.

The Brookings Institute has published a paper containing a poll on the subject of which news source Americans most trust. Finishing first was Fox News with 25%, second was over the air broadcast networks at 23%, CNN came in third with 21%.

NPR and John Stewart garnered 12% and 8% respectively as most trusted news source.

And finishing dead last with 5% was MSNBC.

Newsbusters:

Most surveys regarding cable news channels focus on ratings and the opinions of their viewers. However, a recent poll conducted by the Brookings and Public Religion Research Institute sought the views of all Americans toward all news sources in the nation.

A mere 5 percent of the respondents called the left-wing MSNBC cable channel their “most trusted” TV news outlet. On the other end of the spectrum, the Fox News Channel was named by 25 percent of the people surveyed, surprisingly more than the 23 percent who pointed to the “mainstream media” broadcast networks and the 21 percent who said they trust the Cable News Channel.

Demonstrating just how far the “Lean Forward” network has fallen, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central drew 8 percent of the positive responses, three points more than MSNBC.

In an article on the survey, Andrew Kirell of Mediaite stated: “Now, of course, the argument could be made that MSNBC’s just trusted by the fewest because of exposure. (CNN and Fox are much bigger household names; and broadcast networks are still the dominant news outlets in the ratings.)"

Nevertheless, Independent voters also choose Fox News first, over MSNBC with a 26 percent to 4 percent margin. The broadcast networks came in at 17 percent, while CNN draws a total of 16 percent from those viewers.

While the main goal of the survey was to determine the respondents' views on immigration reform, the poll also produced interesting data regarding where people get their news.

When asked where they get trusted information about politics and current events, 76 percent said they watch local television news, while 24 stated that they do not.

Turning to talk radio programs, only 42 percent said that they trust such programs as those hosted by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, while 57 percent do not tune in to those sources of information.

However, when asked about public radio, 54 percent of the respondents said they trust the news they receive from these outlets, but 46 percent said they do not.

Apparently a sign of the times, 62 percent indicated that they get at least some of their news online, though 37 percent don't trust what they find on the Internet.

Almost as many liberals trust Fox News as MSNBC - 7% to 10%.

MSNBC's "Lean Forward" campaign as well as their hiring several far left liberals in the last couple of years appears to have backfired spectacularly. Fox may be partisan, but it's not preachy. No one likes to watch a bunch of liberal know it alls telling you how you should think on any given issue. And MSNBC's relentless demonization of the opposition  no doubt contributes to their low ratings - and low trust factor.

How much longer can Comcast keep losing millions on their cable news network? It used to be that the news divisions of the major networks were "loss leaders" - prestige programming that fulfilled the FCC requirement for public service broadcasting but lost a ton of money every year.

But that template no longer applies. MSNBC is in business for no other reason than to report the news. The fact that a minuscule number of Americans trust them to deliver the news accurately should cause their parent Comcast to consider pulling the plug on the whole operation.