Answer Details

Short answer: there’s no universally agreed-on “most trustworthy” list (people’s trust in news is super partisan in the U.S.), but there are some safer bets: big outlets with strong editorial standards, plus a small number of well-known explainers. I’ll give you concrete TikTok accounts and then a quick checklist to judge any channel yourself. 1. Strong “hard-news first” outlets on TikTok These are U.S. or U.S-focused newsrooms with established fact-checking and corrections policies off TikTok, and that also publish there. 1. Associated Press – @APNews The Associated Press +1 Nonprofit wire service; many other outlets literally copy AP’s political reporting. TikTok: straight news hits, election results, Supreme Court rulings, quick explainers. AP tends to be rated relatively centrist/factual by media-bias reviewers. 2. Reuters (search “Reuters” on TikTok) Reuters +1 Global wire service, very dry and “just the facts” style. Good for U.S. politics in an international context (elections, foreign policy, tech regulation, etc.). 3. PBS NewsHour – @pbsnews YouTube +1 U.S. public broadcaster; consistently among the most-trusted TV news sources across surveys, especially for Democrats and independents. YouGov TikTok: short clips from longform interviews & explainers on Congress, elections, and Supreme Court issues. 4. NPR (search “NPR” on TikTok) Wander Wisdom +1 Public radio network; high trust especially among left-leaning audiences in polls. YouGov TikTok: they post snippets from radio stories and breaking-news video; not as spammy as some others. 5. ProPublica – @propublica ProPublica +1 Nonprofit investigative newsroom; lots of deep dives into money, corruption, courts, voting rights. TikTok: more occasional posts, but very solid when they do explainers on big investigations. 6. The Washington Post (official TikTok account) Business Insider +1 Major national paper; heavily covers Congress, the White House, courts. TikTok started out comedic/behind-the-scenes but also does legit political explainers and quick breakdowns of big stories. 7. NBC News (official TikTok account) NBCU Academy +1 Big TV network; moderate-to-slight-left audience overall depending on the survey. YouGov TikTok: short explainers, clips from shows, and breaking-news hits on campaigns, Supreme Court, etc. If you build a feed anchored mainly on accounts like these, you’re at least starting from organizations with professional editors, corrections, and legal departments breathing down their necks. 2. Popular TikTok-native news explainers (still: check them) These aren’t “neutral referees,” but they do a lot of political news and are at least reasonably transparent about who they are. Under The Desk News – @underthedesknews (V Spehar) The Verge +1 Independent creator with a journalism background who does quick explainers, often literally filmed from under a desk. Focus on making U.S. politics digestible for people who find traditional news overwhelming (elections, Congress, culture-war stories, etc.). Think of them as a gateway to stories, not the final fact-check: if something sounds wild, confirm it via AP/Reuters/PBS. You’ll also bump into lots of explicitly partisan activist accounts (for example, Gen-Z for Change on the left, or right-wing “viral outrage” pages). Those can be useful to understand what each side is saying, but they’re not “trustworthy news” in the neutral sense, so I wouldn’t build your core feed around them. Wikipedia 3. How to quickly judge any political TikTok account Because TikTok is full of political content from people with no newsroom behind them (Pew found that fewer than 1% of accounts Americans follow on TikTok are actual news outlets). Pew Research Center +1 Here’s a 10-second credibility check: Who are they? Real name, org, or outlet you can Google? Do they list a newsroom or are they an activist / political group? Do they show sources? Good accounts reference specific outlets (“per AP court documents…”) or link articles in comments. Huge red flag: no links, “I heard…” or “people are saying…” as the main evidence. How do they handle corrections? Credible creators post follow-ups when they get something wrong. If you never see “update: I was mistaken,” assume they’re not treating this like journalism. Tone & style: Constant rage, mocking “the other side,” or doxxing → more likely partisan engagement farming than news. Neutral or even slightly boring tone usually correlates with straighter reporting. Funding & agenda: Are they a campaign, a PAC, or an advocacy org? That’s fine, but it means their job is to persuade, not just inform. For core facts, lean on AP/Reuters/PBS/NPR/ProPublica-type sources and use the explicitly partisan stuff to understand spin. Cross-check big claims: For any wild political claim, see if it also appears on AP, Reuters or another major outlet’s website. If it doesn’t, be suspicious. 4. Balancing your feed If you want a relatively healthy TikTok news diet for U.S. politics, a decent recipe is: Core fact base: Follow 4–6 institutional outlets (AP, Reuters, PBS, ProPublica, Washington Post, NBC News, NPR). A couple of explainers: UnderTheDeskNews and maybe one or two others you like, but don’t rely on them alone. Intentional pluralism: Even within mainstream outlets, mix sources that different political groups tend to trust (e.g., PBS/NPR and at least one outlet whose audience leans more right) so your For You page doesn’t become a pure echo chamber. Surveys show that trust is sharply split by party, and following only “your side’s” outlets can amplify polarization. YouGov +1 If you tell me what kind of vibe you like (super short clips vs. in-depth explainers, more progressive vs. very down-the-middle, etc.), I can tailor a mini-follow list that fits your style while still being as reliable as TikTok realistically gets. Recent reporting on TikTok, news & politics