Theorizing about variations in trust in the news across contexts rely on assumptions about expectations of accuracy and impartiality on behalf of eager, rational democratic citizens (Stromback et al., 2020; Fawzi et al., 2021). However, comparative studies investigating variations in news media trust across countries stemming from quality issues (partisan/biased/sensationalist news) have yet to accommodate assumptions from a strand of scholarship that has long investigated the origins and consequences of bias in the news from a social psychological intergroup perspective — the hostile media effect (Perloff, 2015). Compelling evidence in favor of this social identity mechanism driving the HME (Reid, 2012; Hartmann & Thanis, 2013; Ariyanto et al., 2007) poses important and unexplored questions for comparativists who are interested in studying variations in trust as being influenced by such perceptions. Perceptions of how social identities beyond partisan or ideological identities like national, regional, gender, class, and ethnic identities are represented in the news media can also influence how individuals trust in the news (Saleem et al., 2019; Tsfati & Cohen, 2005). This proposed link between social group identity and trust in the news is investigated using data from large-scale multi-country surveys in three ways. Data from the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2021 which includes data from 35 countries is used to show how perceptions of fairness towards social groups one is a member of (political, ethnic, gender, age, class) is related to generalized trust in the news. Data from Wave 7 (2021) of World Values Survey and the Eurobarometer (2018) are used to show the correlation of identification with national group on generalized trust and regional group identities on trust towards national news. / Media & Communication