A comprehensive new poll from the Media Research Center finds voters who rely on CNN and MSNBC are significantly less informed about a host of important issues: from the lack of security on the border and the impact of Joe Biden’s economic policies; to the financial scandals swirling around the President and his family, including suggestions his administration interceded to get his son “preferential treatment” during the tax fraud investigation of Hunter Biden.
On every issue we examined, a majority of those who reported mainly watching Fox News or Newsmax said they recalled hearing about the various news stories we polled, while never more than 50 percent of those who watched CNN and MSNBC had the same information. Depending on the issue, the gap between the two groups averaged 23.5 percent, a huge deficit in the factual information of viewers of liberal cable news.
MRC President L. Brent Bozell III reacted: “This poll is just more evidence of the leftist media’s corrupt election interference. It’s no surprise that voters who rely on these leftist cable networks for their news are vastly less aware of Joe Biden’s multiple scandals and policy disasters. CNN and MSNBC know exactly what they’re doing, which is to bury the truth of Biden’s failures in order to save Joe Biden from himself.”
The poll was conducted for the Media Research Center by McLaughlin & Associates between June 15 and June 19. The survey consisted of 1,000 general election voters, who were asked about where they typically received their news, as well as their knowledge of eleven important news stories.
Overall, nearly half of those we surveyed said they received most of their news from television (49%), followed by online sources (39%), newspapers (6%) and radio (3%). Regardless of their primary news source, we asked all respondents if they had a cable news station they watched “most often.” A slight plurality (34.2%) cited a conservative/right-leaning cable network — Fox News (29.6%) and Newsmax (4.6%). Slightly fewer (30.5%) cited a liberal/left-leaning network — CNN (20.5%) and MSNBC (9.9%). Another three percent cited another network, while nearly 29 percent said they didn’t watch cable news at all.
Sifting through all of the various media combinations, by far the biggest differences we found in our poll were between those who preferred the liberal networks vs. the conservative networks. Details:
■ Economic Woes: A majority of respondents (56%) recalled hearing that gas prices had risen 52 percent since President Biden took office. But that number drops to less than half (48%) among those who say they watch CNN and MSNBC most often; among those who watch Fox News or Newsmax most, nearly three-in-four (73%) recalled hearing that news.
Similarly, 45 percent remembered hearing that the average family has lost $7,100 in purchasing power during the Biden years due to high inflation and interest rates. But that information was more prevalent among those who watched the conservative cable stations (61%) vs. those who relied more on the liberal networks (38%).
And, just 39 percent had heard that real wages and salaries had declined since Biden took office, vs. 48 percent who did not remember hearing that news. Once again, a majority (55%) of those who relied on FNC and Newsmax had this information, while just 34 percent of those watching MSNBC and CNN recalled hearing about this.
■ Biden’s Border Disaster: A majority of voters (54%) recalled hearing that there had been an average of 2.3 million illegal border crossings each year since Biden took office, a record. But a far higher percentage of Fox News and Newsmax viewers (77%) remembered this news story, vs. just 38 percent of CNN and MSNBC viewers.
Many fewer Americans (40%) knew that the U.S. Border Patrol had reported almost 100 encounters in the past year with people whose names appeared on the federal government’s list of known or suspected terrorists. But that awareness drops to just 34 percent when looking just at those who prefer CNN and MSNBC; in contrast, 58 percent of those who watch Fox News and Newsmax remembered hearing this news.
■ Durham Report: Last month’s report by Special Counsel John Durham determined that the FBI and the Justice Department did not have “any actual evidence of collusion” when they began investigating Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The “Russian collusion” story was a media obsession for more than two years, but our poll found only 52 percent of voters remember hearing news about Durham’s final report.
This awareness was much higher (66%) among those who said they usually watched Fox News and Newsmax, vs. just under 50 percent (49.8%, to be precise) of those who rely mostly on CNN and MSNBC. And among those who said they don’t watch cable news at all, only 42.5 percent knew about Durham’s final report.
■ Tampering with the Hunter Biden probe: It was April when an IRS whistleblower first told Congress that he had information that the President’s son had benefited from “preferential treatment” in the multi-year investigation into tax fraud (the same charges which has now led to Hunter Biden’s guilty plea). Within a couple of weeks, the whistleblower’s lawyer reported that his client as well as the entire team had been removed from the investigation.
Despite the appearance of the Biden administration meddling into what was supposed to be an independent investigation, just 57 percent of voters even remembered hearing about this whistleblower, and just 38 percent had heard that he and his team had been removed from the investigation. Those who watched CNN and MSNBC knew even less — just half (50%) had heard of the whistleblower’s existence, and just 31 percent knew he’d been taken off the case.
But Fox News and Newsmax viewers had far greater knowledge: 76 percent remembered hearing about the whistleblower’s allegations, and 56 percent had heard that he and his team had been removed from the investigation.
■ Sparing Hunter’s oligarch cronies: Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. government has sanctioned many of the most powerful oligarchs in Russia. But two of those oddly spared by the Biden administration — Russian billionaires Yelena Baturina and Vladimir Yevtushenkov — have ties to Hunter Biden, according to published reports.
Only 39 percent of those we polled remembered hearing about this important story, and just 35 percent of those who mainly rely on CNN and MSNBC. But a majority (53%) of Fox News and Newsmax viewers were aware of this story.
■ Biden Family Corruption: Last month, a major report from the House Oversight Committee showed that “Biden family business members and business associates created a web of over 20 companies” and, according to bank records, “the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals’ companies,” including when Joe Biden was Vice President.
Less than half of voters (47%) remember even hearing about this blockbuster report. That drops to just 41 percent among those who say they watch CNN and MSNBC the most. But nearly two-thirds of those who regularly watch Fox News and Newsmax (66%) remembered hearing about this key report.
■ FBI withholding bribery evidence against Joe Biden: In May, House and Senate investigators asked for an unclassified document containing allegations that Joe Biden had accepted a bribe as Vice President. Even when faced with a lawful subpoena, the FBI refused to turn over this document to Congress, although the Bureau eventually permitted select members of the House Oversight Committee to view the document.
While this document has yet to be fully investigated, only 45 percent of the voters we polled had even heard about the FBI’s initial withholding of the document from Congress. That includes well over half (61%) of those who regularly watch Fox News and Newsmax, but just under 40 percent (39.5% to be precise) of those who prefer MSNBC and CNN.
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Liberal pundits have often charged that conservative voters are living in their own media “silo,” and lack information about important news events. This important poll shows that the liberal cable networks are creating their own “silo,” with their regular viewers systematically under-informed about crucial news stories that just happen to reflect poorly on the current President.
