The pollsters at Gallup are reporting something that should be obvious. More Americans realize the media favors one party over the other. “Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults say the media has a favorite, up from about 50% in past years. Just 27% now say the media favors neither major party.”
Just how many reporters were sampled in this survey? They (and the rest of the 27 percent) are in denial. Most people know the media look like Trump's opposition party.
Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of those who believe the media tilts toward a political party say they favor the Democrats. Only 22 percent believe the media show a preference for Republicans:
When Gallup last asked this question in February 2003, Americans were about evenly divided on the issue. Republicans are mostly responsible for the increase in perceptions of partisan media bias since 2003. Currently, 77% of Republicans say the media favors one party over the other; in 2003, 59% of Republicans said the same. By comparison, 44% of Democrats now say the media plays favorites, unchanged from the 44% who said so in 2003...
Perhaps not surprisingly, Republicans are fueling the belief that the news media favors Democrats: 88% of Republicans who believe the media is biased say this. Democrats are split in their views, with 43% naming Democrats as the recipients of that bias and 40% saying the bias is toward Republicans.
There's even worse news at a time when the media elites claim to rise above "fake news" emanating from Trump fans. Gallup also found in their March survey that a majority of Americans believe news organizations are often wrong in their reporting: 55 percent said that news organizations' stories and reports are "often inaccurate." Only 36 percent agreed that news organizations generally get the facts straight.
