90 Miles From Tyranny : Pew: US media bias ranks worst in the world

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Thursday, January 18, 2018

Pew: US media bias ranks worst in the world

The United States is unique in the sense that on both sides of the political spectrum, voters believe the media does a poor job reporting political issues in a fair way, according to huge new survey of media consumption in 38 nations.

The Pew Research Center’s study found moreover that supporters of President Trump believe the media is doing a worse job than the supporters of any of the other international political figures in countries surveyed.

It may not come as a surprise since US politics are divisive as ever.

“Large gaps in ratings of the media emerge between governing party supporters and non-supporters. On the question of whether their news media cover political issues fairly, for example, partisan differences appear in 20 of the 38 countries surveyed. In five countries, the gap is at least 20 percentage points, with the largest by far in the US at 34 percentage points,” Pew noted.

Most in the US would agree that the top five media organisastions based in the US are CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC News, and CBS. According to Media Bias/Fact Check, 2 of these websites, CNN and MSNBC, have a left-wing bias, ABC and CBS have a center-left bias, and Fox has a right-wing bias. Thus, the five major US sources are showing a definite right or left bias.

The survey found that only 21 percent of Americans supportive of Trump and Republicans believe the media is reporting fairly. But it also found that only 55 percent of those who that voted against Trump also believe the media is biased in their reporting on US politics.

In every other case, those numbers are reversed, Pew said.

“The US is also one of only a few countries where governing party supporters are less satisfied with their news media than are non-supporters. In most countries, people who support the political party currently in power are more satisfied with the performance of their news media than those who do not support the governing party,” the study revealed.

Some 2 in 3 American adults say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current affairs, according to Pew. The survey found that Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say that “fake news” leaves Americans deeply confused about...Read More HERE

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