Conservatives have never been big fans of the legacy news media. For decades, they have watched supposedly impartial journalists present a slanted, agenda-driven version of reality that ignores conservative concerns and eagerly advances left-wing narratives on nearly every key issue.

But, while anger and contempt are understandable responses to this bias, censorship is not the answer. Yet, this week, the Economist released a YouGov poll revealing that 48 percent of self-identified conservative respondents would allow courts to impose fines on media outlets that publish “biased or inaccurate” stories. Only 16 percent can say with certainty that they oppose criminalization of journalistic bias or imprecision.