President Trump’s charges that the media is the “enemy of the people” has hit pay dirt in the public where 57% now believe that the press publishes “fake news” to drive their political agenda.
A comprehensive new survey out Tuesday from the Wason Center for Public Policy at Virginia’s Christopher Newport University also found that nearly one third of likely voters feel the media bias is at its highest.
What’s more, partisanship has hit a new record level with majorities on each side feeling that the other “threatens the well being of the country.” Among Republicans, said the Newport News university, the anti-Democrat rage has hit “catastrophic levels.”
The poll said that 55% of Democrats believe Republicans threaten the U.S., while 71% of Republicans believe Democrats are the threat.
That is a massive change since Pew Research Center asked a similar question in 2014. The analysis said, “Pew Research Center’s Political Polarization in the American Public report found that in 2014, 27% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans believed their political counterparts presented a threat to the well-being of the country. Just five years later, in our survey, these numbers have doubled for both parties, reaching catastrophic levels among Republican voters. Heading into the 2020 election, 7 out of 10 Republican voters believe that the views of Democrats threaten the well-being of the country, up 35 points since Pew’s study.”
Our national survey, out today, finds 84% of Republicans believe nation’s major media outlets publish fake news for political purposes; unprecedented levels of partisan animosity. https://t.co/lLHths6HPK pic.twitter.com/uinxELmB4h
— The Wason Center (@WasonCenter) April 2, 2019
Partisanship also played a role in how voters viewed the media.
The survey found that 86% of Republicans believe fake news is published for political purposes. Some 69% of Democrats disagree.
Asked to judge media bias on a 0-10 scale, the highest number, 28%, picked 10, giving the strongest possible agreement that the press prints fake news for political purposes.
“An astounding 86% of Republicans fall into the ‘agree’ category, with 45% of Republicans rating the statement with a 10 out of 10. However, pure independents also seem to be affected by Trump’s ‘fake news’ attacks. 63% of pure independents believe major American news organizations publish fake news stories for political purposes. And although nearly 70% of Democrats disagree with the statement, even 31% of Democrats believe the nation’s major news organizations publish fake news stories for political purposes,” said the survey analysis.
“President Trump’s rhetoric appears to be having a massive impact on voter confidence in the media,” said Wason Center Assistant Director Rachel Bitecofer, who directed the survey.
“Although confidence in media has been declining for the past few decades, this represents a sharp decline in trust, which carries serious implications,” she added.
