The Trust Paradox: News Media Leads the Web on Trust Signals and Trails It on Accessibility — Across 71,700 Sites and Six Quality Dimensions
We cross-referenced 71,700 news and media sites against SEO, AEO, EEAT, WCAG accessibility, readability, and privacy. News leads the web on trust signals (EEAT 56.3% vs 45.4%) but trails on accessibility (34.7% vs 43.8%, down from 43.9% at first publication — nearly half score F) and readability, and only 1.7% pass SEO. Negative-sentiment content runs 2.3x the web rate. The sector with the strongest on-page credibility signals is failing the public exactly as trust in news hits a record low of 37%.