Poll: Huge Majority Blames News Media for Political Division
The news media is to blame for dividing America, according to a new poll.
A Hill-HarrisX poll released Friday found that 75 percent of those polled believe how the media report the news further divides America politically, according to The Hill.
HarrisX polled 1,001 registered voters across the country and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The poll found only seven percent of respondents said the media’s reporting has made the country less divided, while 17 percent said the media had no impact on the nation’s political division.
Majorities across the political spectrum were united in pointing the finger at the media for exacerbating divisions. The poll found that 84 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of independents believe the media is an agent of division.
The poll was taken on Jan. 13 and 14, a time at which the media was often found blaming President Donald Trump for Iran’s downing of a Ukrainian jetliner, which killed all 176 people aboard, and attacking him for the drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Trump has fought back on Twitter.
The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was “imminent” or not, & was my team in agreement. The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2020
The Democrats and the Fake News are trying to make terrorist Soleimani into a wonderful guy, only because I did what should have been done for 20 years. Anything I do, whether it’s the economy, military, or anything else, will be scorned by the Rafical Left, Do Nothing Democrats!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2020
Many have said the media hit a new low in blaming Trump for the tragedy.
“There is no low journalists won’t embrace to defeat Trump in the November presidential election,” Dan Gainor wrote in an Op-Ed on Fox News.
“MSNBC even reported Iran’s entirely false claim about its missile assault on two military bases in Iraq that ’30 U.S. soldiers have been killed in this attack.’ In reality, there were no American casualties,” he noted.
Gainor noted two other instances when the media went out of its way to attack Trump.
“The Associated Press posted a story headlined: ‘An Iranian general dies in U.S. attack, and innocents suffer,'” he wrote.
“New York Times columnist Max Fisher pointed his finger at Trump for events leading up the plane being shot down by Iran. He wrote how most analysts say the latest conflict began ‘when President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear accord, imposed crushing sanctions on Iran and issued a series of maximalist demands,'” Gainor wrote.
One commentator noted that media has become one-sided.
“With the media’s blame game becoming virtually indistinguishable from that of the Democrats, it’s no wonder how disinformation has metastasized,” Tiana Lowe wrote in an Op-Ed for the Washington Examiner.
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