Politicians, especially President Donald Trump, often lash out at the media and how it treats them, but according to a new poll, most Republicans say they think the media treats elected officials fairly, and Democrats tend to agree.
According to a Hill-HarrisX poll of 1,001 registered voters conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 1:
- 58% of registered GOP voters said the press treats elected officials either "very fairly" or "somewhat fairly."
- 32% said the media acts "somewhat unfairly" or "very unfairly" toward them.
- 71% of Democrats said the media treats either very or somewhat fairly.
- 56% of Independent voters believe the media is being fair.
- 11% of Republicans said they are unsure.
However, a Gallup poll in September said 41% of Americans have either a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the mass media, dropping 4 percentage points since last year.
Several Democratic presidential candidates, meanwhile, have criticized the media, saying their campaigns are being covered unfairly. Andrew Yang, who has said he will not appear on MSNBC until it apologizes over how it has treated and ignored him and his campaign, and Julian Castro on Tuesday criticized the media for holding Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., to a "different standard" after she announced she was leaving the race for the nomination.
The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with a higher sampling error among partisan voters.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.