Media coverage of police shootings is sparking retaliation on cops, according to a new survey taken after the recent rash of attacks on police.
Rasmussen Reports on Wednesday released a poll that found 62 percent of adults believing that the media coverage is inspiring the attacks.
The Rasmussen analysis reasoned that it might come from the overwhelming belief among voters that the media gives far more coverage to police shooting suspects than to the shootings of police by gunmen.
That played out in newspapers today. The Washington Post, for example, played up President Obama’s speech in Dallas in which he called for unity but also hit guns and police racism, and the Post directed readers to an anti-NRA story and one blasting Republicans for rejecting Black Lives Matter. Then on the back page of the Metro section was a story about black suspects firing a shots at District Police.
— 62 percent say the media coverage of shootings by police officers inspires people to attack the police. Twenty-two percent disagree, but another 16 percent are not sure.
— 71 percent of American adults think that given two separate police shootings, the media would give more coverage to an incident in which a policeman shoots a black suspect. Only 11 percent believe the media would give more coverage to a police shooting in which the suspect is white. Thirteen percent say the level of coverage would be about the same.
— Even most blacks (55 percent) agree, however, that the media would give more coverage to the police shooting of a black suspect, although that compares to 74 percent of whites and 70 percent of other minority Americans. But 23 percent of blacks think the media would pay more attention to the shooting of a white suspect, a view shared by only eight percent (8%) of whites and 15 percent of other minorities.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
