My faith and confidence in objective media are all but lost. And it is scaring the bejeezus out of me. Anyone else feeling the same? (And are you up for some stats?)
This will sound a bit harsh, but here goes: these partisan hacks working for these networks don’t care what the polls say, as long as they have advertisers and an audience. How can a reporter stand in front of a burning building and claim it is a peaceful protest? How can Brian Stelter say, “Fox is so mean to Joe Biden. There isn’t any network that goes after Trump.”
Ignorant bots.
Onward.
Note: These findings are based on more than 20,000 interviews collected between November 2019 and February 2020 – before the novel coronavirus led to a global pandemic and protests for racial justice swept the nation:
- 86% of Americans see “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of political bias in today’s news coverage (up almost double from 2017, 45%)
- 69% of Americans are concerned about bias in the news other people are getting than they worry about their own information being biased (29%)
- Nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) say they see too much bias in the reporting of the news as “a major problem” (up from 65% in 2017)
- 82% of Americans perceive inaccurate news to be intentional – either because the reporter is misrepresenting the facts or making them up entirely
- Nearly 8 in 10 Americans (79%) say news organizations they distrust are trying to persuade people to select a particular viewpoint
- 71% of Republicans have a “very” or “somewhat” opposed opinion of the news media, compared to 22% of Democrats and 52% of independents
- 70% of Democrats say the media is under attack, and those attacks are not justified, compared to 61% of Republicans who say the attacks are justified
- Less than 1 in 5 Americans under age 30 (19%) have an unfavorable view of the media, compared to 44% of Americans aged 65 and older who have a “very” or “somewhat” favorable idea of the media
- Priorities cited by Americans who say media organizations should hire for more diversity differ by race and political party:
- Democrats (49%) and Blacks (60%) prioritize racial/ethnic diversity in hiring
- Republicans (51%) and Whites (35%) prioritize diversity in political views
- 4 in 5 Americans (78%) say the spread of misinformation online is “a major” problem – exceeding all other challenges by the media
- 62% of Americans say it is harder rather than easier to be well-informed because of all the sources of information available
- 41% of Americans pay attention to one or two trusted sources while 31% consult a variety of sources to see where they agree
- 17% have ceased to pay attention to news altogether
- 84% of Americans say the media bears “a great deal” or “moderate amount” of the blame for the political division
- The same percentage says the media can heal these divisions
- Download the full report here:
