CNN has long branded itself as "the most trusted name in news," but a new Quinnipiac poll reveals that viewers trust Fox News more than any other national TV news outlet, Mediaite reported.

Twenty percent of those surveyed said they trusted Fox's coverage "a great deal"; that number drops to 18 percent for CNN and 14 percent each for the traditional major broadcasting networks of NBC, CBS and ABC. MSNBC, meanwhile, comes in last at 11 percent.

When split up by political preference, the crown remains with Fox for Republicans, 58 percent of whom trust the channel the most, Bustle noted. Democrats, meanwhile, picked CNN as their favorite: The Atlanta-based channel came in at 32 percent, 18 percentage points over MSNBC.

"We've seen this before," the Washington Post's Erik Wemple judged. "Whereas conservative folks give an extraordinary level of support to their cable home, Fox News, liberals simply refuse to do likewise for their cable home, MSNBC."

That gap between the two becomes even more impressive when it comes to a ranking of overall trustworthiness, Mediaite noted. Here, 29 percent of viewers told the Quinnipiac researchers that they put their faith in Fox; only 7 percent said the trusted MSNBC's coverage more than that of its competitors.

Quinnipiac also polled viewers on the recent controversies surrounding Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC's flagship "Nightly News," and Bill O'Reilly, one of Fox News' most visible hosts.

In early February, Williams admitted that he had not been aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by enemy fire during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, as he had claimed numerous times. O'Reilly similarly has been accused of exaggerating accounts of his coverage of the South Atlantic War and bombings in Northern Ireland, according to CNN.

Forty-two percent of respondents said that NBC should allow Williams to continue in his anchor role, while 35 percent think the network should let him go after his suspension, Politico detailed. As for O'Reilly, 51 percent said they did not know enough about the allegations against the host to say whether he should be suspended or allowed to stay with Fox.

Quinnipiac polled 1,286 registered voters nationwide via landlines and cellphones between Feb. 26 and March 2; its findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.