President Donald Trump believes a new poll showing that nearly half of Americans believe the news media is inventing stories about his administration is actually low-balling the issue.
On Wednesday night he tweeted, quoting a poll that Fox News reported on — but was actually published by Politico and Morning Consult — that found “46 percent of Americans think the media is inventing stories about Trump and his administration,” Trump wrote.
“It is actually much worse than this!” he said.
"46% of Americans think the Media is inventing stories about Trump & his Administration." @FoxNews It is actually much worse than this!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2017
The Politico poll, published Wednesday, found that nearly 50 percent of Americans do, in fact, think that the media fabricates stories about Trump and his administration, while 37 percent don’t. Republicans are more suspicious of the media than any other group, with 76 percent saying they believe in fake news. The group’s distrust of the news is not particularly surprising as the party’s leader, Trump, spends so much time criticizing the media.
Only one in five Democrats have bought into Trump’s media outrage, but 44 percent of independents think the media is making up stories.
The President’s claims on Wednesday are nothing new.
Trump has been diminishing the media since the days of his campaign when he seized on the phrase “fake news.” He’s been particularly irked the past few weeks after NBC News published a story that claimed his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called him a “moron” and wanted to resign this summer. The President tweeted last week, questioning what could be done to revoke the licenses of broadcast media outlets.
This week, Trump told radio host Chris Plante that he thought journalists would publish more favorable pieces about him after he won the election.
“Actually, dishonesty in the media is one of the things that surprised me the most,” he said Tuesday. “I thought after I won, the media would become much more stable and much more honest. They’ve gone crazy. CNN is a joke. NBC is a total joke. You watch what they report, it bears no relationship to what I’m doing. But the media is absolutely dishonest — and frankly, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
The Politico poll was conducted from Oct. 12 to the 16th and surveyed 1,991 registered voters. The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points.
Polls clearly reveal many Americans are just plain ignorant. This story depressingly shows many live a bizarre fantasy existence bereft of facts and logic.
Here he is, projecting his own fantasy world on everyone else…
Early morning accidental truth telling by the Moron in Chief. Hilarious!
First off, the question itself is disingenuous on two fronts: firstly, “the media” is a broad category; secondly, there’s no indication of frequency.
Has someone in the media, in the entirety of American history, ever completely fabricated a story? Probably; just look at the stories of scientific papers wherein people fabricated data. Or Glenn Beck. Or Sean Hannity. Or James O’Keefe. Or Alex Jones. Or clickbait, aka next-gen tabloid press. (Tabloids 2.0?)
Of course, some might not consider plainly partisan propaganda promoters to be “the media” but probably figure to err on the side of caution. But do they think that this happens often or that it’s just something that has happened? Every day? Every week? Every month? Once a decade?
Next, where do folks like Kelly Anne Cons-her-way fit in, with their “Bowling Green Massacres” and whatnot?
Of course, since these distinctions will likely be lost on some, let’s just point out that all of this pales to the number of people who think Hair Furor is a pathological and/or delusional liar.
The profit motive tends to warp an industry.
Look what it’s done to our democracy.