Almost two thirds of those polled by Rasmussen Reports – 66% — say they are at least somewhat angry at the media. Only 31% are not angry, but only 9% go all the way and say they are not angry at all. Rasmussen says its poll made no effort to differentiate media outlets when asking questions in the survey.
Rasmussen also found that 51% of its respondents think the press was assisting the campaign of Barack Obama in 2008, with only 7% saying McCain was the favorite. 31% thought that coverage was balanced.
68% believe reports aid candidates they favor, and 54% believe that reporters will hide information that might damage their favorite candidate.
Rasmussen uncovered an interesting divergence between what it called mainstream respondents and political class respondents. While 60% of the mainstream believe the press is trying to help forward the Obama agenda, 57% say to the contrary that the press is trying to block Obama. While 62% of the mainstream thinks the press is more liberal than they are, the political class believes that journalist political opinion roughly mirrors the distribution in their own group.
RBR-TVBR observation: Yawn – what else is new? Somebody who loves Fox but gets to thinking about MSNBC when asked the question might start channeling anger and answering the poll that way, and vice versa. Blaming the messenger is an age old pursuit – replace today’s media with a whole new set of outlets conveyed by means we cannot yet imagine, and 66% will still be angry at the media.
