The Washington Post and ABC ran a poll that asked people about the information that comes from President Donald Trump and the media. Unfortunately for the media, the poll shows how little trust the public has in the media. From WaPo:
The media says President Trump makes claims that aren’t true. Trump says the media produces fake news. And in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, at least half of Americans say both Trump and the media “regularly” disseminate false information.Nobody looks good in this survey.Asked whether they “think the Trump administration regularly makes false claims,” 59 percent of respondents say yes, while 35 percent say no. The media scores only slightly better on a similar question: “Do you think mainstream news organizations regularly produce false stories?” Fifty-two percent say yes, and 44 percent say no.
While Callum Borchers says no one looks good in the survey he pointed out something important:
In any case, false claims are not necessarily a hindrance for Trump. In one of the poll’s most interesting findings, 1 in 6 Trump voters agree that the president regularly makes false claims — yet cast a ballot for him anyway. And 94 percent of the president’s voters approve of his job performance.
Is anyone shocked? After the disgusting love fest between the media and former President Barack Obama and Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, how can anyone take seriously any reports from journalists?
Greg Sargent, author of the publication’s The Plum Line, decided to put a leftist twist on the poll by playing victim to Trump’s war on the media. Goodness, why doesn’t anyone believe the mainstream media?!
Sargent insists that the poll proves that “Trump’s lies are working brilliantly.” After all, WaPo’s fact-checking team has found “more than 400 false or misleading statements as of Day 91 of his presidency.”
The Sargent complains that it appears the intense “critical media scrutiny of him and his administration also is a sign that he’s doing something right – that he’s on their side, and the news media is the enemy.”
Duh. That’s where Sargent buries the other part of the poll: the public does not trust the media. When the media blows everything out of proportion (remember how big of a deal it was when a photo showed that Trump uses tape on his ties?) how can people trust the outlets?
Back in November, a few weeks after Trump’s victory, The New York Times public editor Liz Spayd told her fellow journalists to drop the bias. Her office received “five times the normal level” of complaints. Even those on the left complained to Spayd:
Few could deny that if Trump’s more moderate supporters are feeling bruised right now, the blame lies partly with their candidate and his penchant for inflammatory rhetoric. But the media is at fault too, for turning his remarks into a grim caricature that it applied to those who backed him. What struck me is how many liberal voters I spoke with felt so, too. They were Clinton backers, but, they want a news source that fairly covers people across the spectrum.—WHAT struck me most as I spoke with readers is how much, to a person, they had something to say that was smart and reasonable. They weren’t randomly selected — I chose them from an inbox of complaints — but they had reactions that were well worth hearing. I found myself wishing someone from the newsroom was on the line with me, especially to hear how many of the more liberal voters wanted more balanced coverage. Not an echo chamber of liberal intellectualism, but an honest reflection of reality.
It appears the media has not learned its lesson from Obama or the campaign.
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