Nationwide Poll: Fox News Only Major News Outlet Not Leaning Left
A new poll shows that Americans realize how far from the middle the mainstream news media has drifted.
The poll was taken by Morning Consult and The Hollywood Reporter. The survey of registered voters let respondents rate the media in terms of being “more liberal,” neutral, or “more conservative.”
ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and NBC all were ranked “more liberal.”
Fox News, however, was rated as “more conservative.”
A Morning Consult executive said President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on the media are shaping public perceptions, particularly among Trump’s core followers, according to The Hill.
Trump continued his attacks with a Tuesday tweet.
“The Mainstream Media has never been more inaccurate or corrupt than it is today. It only seems to get worse. So much Fake News!” Trump tweeted.
The Mainstream Media has never been more inaccurate or corrupt than it is today. It only seems to get worse. So much Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 9, 2019
The poll found that among Republicans, trust in The New York Times and CNN has eroded rapidly. The credibility of those outlets has dropped roughly 20 points among Republicans since 2016, the poll found.
“President Trump’s relentless rhetoric on the mainstream media has helped shape how those mediums are viewed among his base,” Tyler Sinclair, a vice president at Morning Consult, said, according to The Hill.
Sinclair said the political position of viewers tends to determine which sources they see as credible.
“Outside of their local news, Republicans find Fox News the most credible out of all mainstream media outlets and CNN the least credible. In contrast, Democrats are most likely to find Fox News least credible and CNN and the three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) most credible,” Sinclair said.
CNN and Fox News were in a virtual tie for credibility, with 53 percent saying CNN was credible with 52 percent saying that of Fox News.
The poll found that the most credible news sources were ABC and CBS, each tied at 63 percent. The Wall Street Journal placed third at 61 percent, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
Among print news sources, The New York Times was rated credible by 53 percent of respondents, but The Washington Post was only rated credible by 49 percent of respondents.
However, viewers also seem to know they are getting a lot of opinion with their cable news. Only 19 percent of respondents said there were more facts than opinions on cable news. Forty-eight percent said it was the other way around.
The poll, which was conducted March 28 through April 2, has a margin of error of two percentage points.
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