Voters Believe Media Biased Against Trump but Not Against Clinton: Survey
Voters are far more likely to think the media is biased against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump than against his chief Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. While Liberals, Democrats, news media personnel and even so-called media critics deny any bias, more and more citizens are pointing out numerous examples of broadcast and print news favoritism towards Hillary Clinton and actual hostility towards the Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
A new Rasmussen survey reports that forty-seven percent (47%) of likely U.S. voters think most reporters are biased against Trump. Reports finds that 31% disagree, but 22% are not sure.
By comparison, just half as many (23%) believe the media is biased against Clinton. Most voters (59%), in fact, say the media is not biased against the former first lady and secretary of State. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided.
Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Republicans and 50% of unaffiliated voters feel the media is biased against Trump, but just 26% of Democrats agree. Only 13% of GOP voters and 20% of unaffiliateds believe the media is biased against Clinton, compared to 34% of Democrats. But even a plurality (44%) of voters in Clinton’s own party says the media is not biased against her.
This survey was taken before perhaps the biggest controversy yet involving Trump, his call in the wake of the San Bernardino massacre for barring all Muslims from entering the United States until the federal government can figure out how to do a better job keeping out radical Islamic terrorists.
Sixty-six percent (66%) of all voters say the news media focus too much on Trump and Clinton at the expense of the other presidential candidates. Just six percent (6%) think there is too little focus on the two front-runners. Twenty percent (20%) describe the level of media coverage as about right.
Seventy-five percent (75%) believe that when it comes to covering prospective presidential candidates, the media is more interested in creating controversies about them than it is in reporting where they stand on the issues.