Americans fed up with dishonest mainstream media, poll finds

FPI / July 21, 2020

Americans have had enough of a politically-driven and dishonest mainstream media and are seeking out alternative news sources, a poll found.

"Not only is the political media biased, but it’s sending consumers searching for 'news that is accurate, opinions that are vital and debate that is sincere,' according to a new survey that polled on a quote pulled from the resignation letter of the New York Times’s Bari Weiss," Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard noted on July 17.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey found that 63 percent of all respondents “believe most major news organizations in this country have their own political agenda." Just 27 percent said news organizations “generally remain impartial.”

Nearly half of likely voters surveyed said the media is deliberately trying to block President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“Just 30 percent of voters trust the political news they’re getting, and 44 percent believe most reporters are trying to block President Trump’s agenda. By contrast, 48 percent thought most reporters were trying to help President Obama pass his agenda in 2010," Rasmussen said.

The survey, not surprisingly, found 87 percent of Republican respondents see the major media as biased, compared to 42 percent of Democrats.

The poll followed the resignation of Weiss from The New York Times last week. She issued a scathing letter that said the Times has caught clickbait fever and writes only for the liberal audience.

Weiss wrote: “Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.”

Of her line that the American public, as a result, is searching for more accurate news, 58 percent agreed, said Rasmussen.

Free Press International